Crispy Chicken Strips

This is a simple Tex-Mex dish that is excellent as a snack, or as a filling for a tortilla or as part of a main course. I came across it by accident really, while looking for inspiration for dinner in the local supermarket. I saw this packet of seasoning mix for "Crispy Chicken Bites", which looked pretty tasty on the picture on the packet. Just as I was about to put into my shopping basket, I took a look at the ingredient list and thought
"Heh, actually I have all of those ingredients at home, surely I can make it myself for a fraction of the price?" (Scottish roots, live in Holland - I know all the jokes!)

Anyway, try it, and see for yourself how easy it is to make something that they sell pre-packaged in the supermarkets and make it taste much better, because you control what goes into it. And if you don't like the results then you can always find the packet at Albert Heijn in Stedenwijk-Zuid in Almere!!! (But I know you will like it!)

Ingredients

500g chicken breast

1 cup of cornflakes (yes cornflakes!!)

2 slices of old bread (not so old that it has gone blue, but a bit stale!)

1 tb black pepper

1 tb paprika

1 tb chili powder

1 tb coriander powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt

1 egg

1 dash of milk (about a tablespoon worth)

100g plain flour

sunflower oil

Method

Cut the chicken breasts into thin strips of about 10cm long by 2cm wide. There is actually a part of the chicken breast along each side of the breastbone on the underside that are the ideal size - in America they call these chicken tender strips. Don't ask me why, I doubt they are actually more tender that the rest of the breast! You want each piece to be the same thickness (about 3mm thick - the thickness of a British pound coin). If any of your strips are too thick then bash them a bit with a meat tenderiser or a rolling pin.

Put the flour into a dish large enough to fit several of the strips at once. Put the egg (crack it first for best results!) and the milk into a similar dish and beat this egg wash gently. Put all the other ingredients into a food mixer and blast these for a minute or so, until the cornflakes and bread resemble small crumbs. Place this mixture into a third dish.

So now you should have 3 dishes sides by side - one of flour, one of egg wash and one of cornflakes, breadcrumbs and spices. You can season the flour if you like for a bit of extra spice.

Place the chicken strips one by one first into the flour, then into the egg wash and lastly into the cornflakes/breadcrumbs mix, and then place onto a plate while you do the rest. If you run out of ingredients in any of the dishes, just make some more and continue! Easy!

For extra crispy results you can repeat the 2nd and 3rd steps, so after the cornflakes/breadcrumbs mix dip back into the egg wash and then back into the cornflakes/breadcrumbs. This is what we call double-dipping.

To cook the crispy strips you have 2 options. Either heat a frying pan to a medium heat and add enough sunflower oil to cover the bottom to a depth of about 2mm; or put the oven on to 220 C and put oil into the bottom of a baking tray. The frying pan option will give a crispier result but you can only fry a few strips at a time. Also fried food is not the healthiest option. The oven option takes longer to cook the chicken good (about 20-25 minutes) but means you can leave them while you make something else. You could also deep fry the strips but this is really slapping healthiness in the face.

Whichever option you use, make sure that the chicken is cooked well all the way through. You can test this by taking the largest, thickest strip and cutting in half. The inside should be completely white inside with no sign of any pink. 

Serve the strips with barbecue sauce, a homemade salsa or with shredded lettuce and tomato in a tortilla wrap. The choice is yours!

Enjoy!