Chicken me out!



Football season is here and there are many game day recipes to try!

This past weekend my boyfriend and I attempted our first-ever spicy chicken strip recipe. Before you read the recipe, you must know they were a little overcooked. It wasn’t so much that the chicken was overcooked, but the breading cooked faster than the chicken and made it appear as if they were burnt. We did use cornstarch in our recipe, which may have been the reason why the breading was overdone. I did not include the ¼ cup of cornstarch we added in the recipe below.

We cooked our strips in 350°F oil for 7 minutes. This seemed like a basic standard for frying chicken based on our research.

I do think we have a good recipe on our hands and I still want to share our hard work and effort! I think the hot sauce gave a nice color to the juicy chicken and the batter created a good outer crispy crust despite being dark. The strips were not a buffalo, flaming hot type of spicy. They had a nice kick to them, and I think people would enjoy the not so overwhelming spice.

I personally like a lot of spiciness. Next time I may double the teaspoons of cayenne pepper to the batter for an additional kick.

We ate these strips with mashed potatoes and Hawaiian rolls. Our dipping sauce was ranch, but we thought you could taste the spices more without the ranch.

Some other pairing ideas include fries or any mac and cheese dish!

Let me know if your strips were a success!
Spicy Chicken Strips Prep time (after marinade): 15 minutes Total cook time: 20 minutes Servings: 21 strips Ingredients:
Marinade (overnight):
2 lbs chicken breast 1 cup buttermilk 1/2 cup hot sauce (I used Frank’s hot sauce) 1 tsp salt 1 tsp black pepper
Dry Batter Mix:
2 cups flour 2 tsp paprika 2 tsp cayenne pepper 1 tsp onion powder 1 tsp garlic powder 1 tsp salt 1 tsp baking powder 1 packet ranch mix
Frying:
5 cups canola oil Deep-fry thermometer Instructions:
Cut chicken breast into strips. Place in gallon size bag with buttermilk, hot sauce, salt, pepper. Mix well and leave in refrigerator overnight to marinate.

To prepare dry batter mix add flour, listed seasonings, baking powder, ranch mix into a large mixing bowl. Stir well.

Next, add canola oil to frying pot and heat until oil is 350°F using a deep-frying thermometer.

Take out chicken from the refrigerator and begin to batter with dry mix before placing it into the frying oil. You only need to coat marinated chicken with dry mix once. Fry chicken pieces for 7 minutes. Place in a cool rack for 2 minutes before eating and enjoy!

Side note: We were able to fry fried 5 pieces at a time. The temperature of the oil dropped when chicken is added, so I would be mindful of adjusting the temperature as you continue to fry different batches of chicken.