Salt and vinegar chicken tenders
My unpopular opinion is that more things in the world should be salt and vinegar flavored! And you know what they say! Be the change you wish to see in the world! So this is baby steps hehe.
Another belief I have is that if chicken is breaded, you should be able to bite down and not have any chewy or hard bits! It should be 100% chicken breast meat with nothing sus about it texturally. I’ll tell you how to achieve that with these and you’ll feel safe eating them without any worry you’ll bite down on a chewy thing.
This is my first recipe for ‘the potato chip diaries’ I’ve started on Instagram and TikTok. I hope you’ll join me there! I’m making all kinds of potato chip inspired food because I’ve decided it’s the best use of free will.
Ingredients:
600g chicken tenderloins (important to buy the tenderloins)
1 liter neutral oil, for frying
small bag of salt and vinegar chips, for garnish
Marinade:
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup fine cooking salt
Wet Batter:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
1 cup malt vinegar
1 tsp fine cooking salt
Dry Batter:
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup cornstarch
1 tbsp fine cooking salt
1 tsp onion powder
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 cup white vinegar (wait to add this!)
Method:
Prep chicken: remove the tendon from the chicken by pulling the white part out while holding down the meat with a fork. It should slip all the way out. Discard tendons. Tip: if you’ve never done this it could be useful to watch a youtube video on removing tendons.
Marinate chicken: add chicken and all ingredients for the marinade in a mixing bowl. Stir to evenly combine. Cover with a plate, lid or plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 mins. Note: if you leave it any longer than 1 hour, it can mess with the texture of the chicken meat.
Blend chips: add potato chips to a high speed blender. Blend until a coarse sand texture is achieved. Pour into a bowl and set aside.
Prepare batters: in two separate bowls, prepare the wet batter and dry batter. For each batter, add ingredients to a mixing bowl and mix to combine until even.
For the dry batter, hold off on adding the 1/4 cup of vinegar until the remaining dry ingredients are evenly mixed in. Then, pour the vinegar in and mix it into the dry ingredients with your hand. Clump the mixture together to get small clumps. This will give the crust all the texture we love!
Bread the chicken: after marinating, pour out the buttermilk/vinegar mix and pat the chicken dry. No need to rinse.
Prepare a lined baking sheet. Dunk chicken into the wet batter and let the excess drip off. Dunk chicken into the dry batter and pat the mixture into the chicken on both sides, leaving no empty spots. Place onto the lined baking sheet. Repeat with every tenderloin.
Heat the oil: add oil to a thick bottom pot or pan (so it helps preserve heat) and bring to medium-high heat. I suggest using a thermometer and bringing the oil to 325C/615F.
The chicken will be fried twice. Once at a lower temperature (325C/615F) to cook the chicken through the inside, then again at a slightly higher temperature (375C/705F) to get that golden crust on the outside.
First fry: place as many tenderloins into the hot oil as you can manage without overcrowding them. Fry for 4 mins then remove and place onto a wire rack with a tray beneath it. The color of the crust will be a light golden after the first fry. Repeat until all tenders have been fried.
Second fry: increase the heat slightly to 375C/705F. Batch fry the tenders again but this time only for 2 mins for each batch. Remove from oil and place onto a wire rack to cool. Garnish with the salt and vinegar potato chip crumb. The color of the crust should be a deep golden. Repeat until all tenders have been fried a second time.
Once all the chicken tenders have been fried twice and garnished with salt and vinegar potato chip crumb after coming out of the fryer, they’re done! Enjoy straight away or keep in the fridge.
