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If there’s nothing like home cooking, then there’s really nothing like home frying some chicken tenders on your stove top in a cast iron skillet!
Tenders are great for kids, for parties, for dipping, and, well, for just about everything!
Also, read below for my best tips on enhancing your tenders.
My 3 Best Tips for Better Home Fried Chicken Tenders
In my opinion, there are 3 major things you can do to take your chicken tenders to the next level!
- Use a high quality cast iron skillet.
- Make an incredible sauce for dipping.
- Double fry.
Let’s dive in!
Use a High Quality Cast Iron Skillet
First, you will want to use a high quality cast iron skillet to pan fry your chicken tenders.
You don’t want to deep fry your tenders, because they’re more likely to come out dry.
That can happen because the tenders are so thin, and don’t have any bones inside to keep the chicken from heating up too quickly.
All of your juices will run out and you’ll be left with disappointment.
So, when you pan fry, you have to choose what kind of pan to use to fry your chicken.
I prefer to use a heavy bottom, cast iron skillet to do my frying for a number of reasons, but here’s 2 important ones:
- Thick cast iron skillets hold heat extraordinarily well.
- The scalding hot oil won’t hurt the cast iron.
When I use my Lodge 12 inch cast iron skillet for any cooking, I know that I’ll have to take into account it’s incredible heating abilities.
This is important when frying, because when you add food to the frying oil, the residual heat from the pan will continue to keep it at close to the same temperature.
This will result in a more consistent product than a lesser pan.
Lesser pans also don’t have the resistance of a cast iron skillet, which will outlive its owner if treated correctly.
Hot oil will damage most materials, and leave them in a lesser state.
For example, I wouldn’t recommend trying to pan fry in a non stick skillet if you care about your health.
However, cast iron skillets can handle anything you throw at them. All you have to do is take care of them, and they’ll take care of you. That’s synergy!
Make an Incredible Sauce for Dipping
Making one, two, or even several dipping sauces for your tenders will really up your game.
You can mix and match them, toss your chicken in them, and get really creative with your appetizers!
See below for a list of a few of my favorite sauces that I think would go great with chicken tenders:
- Blue Cheese Dressing (Crowd Favorite)
- Memphis Honey-Gold Sauce (Sure to Please)
- Chipotle Lime Mayo
- Chef’s Ranch Dressing
In all honesty, I think boneless chicken really needs some kind of sauce on it when fried.
The oil just seeps out so much of the tenderness from the chicken, that the sauce adds some of that moisture back into the equation.
You can also buy a sauce from a major retailer.
Now on to my last point.
Double Fry
Double fry, double fry, double fry!
You’ll hear me beat this point to death, but you absolutely need to fry your chicken twice to get that restaurant quality crunch!
To skim the surface, frying your chicken once at a lower temperature, then a second time at a higher temperature will cause your chicken to be the following 3 things:
- More tender.
- Crispier on the outside.
- Juicier.
Those are literally the 3 most important characteristics of fried chicken.
You can achieve excellent fried chicken at home if you double fry!
Moreover, you’ll even counteract a lot of the dryness associated with chicken tenders.
But enough, I’ll let it rest…for now.
Finishing Point
To finish things up, we discussed the 3 major things you can do to upgrade your chicken tenders.
Use a high quality cast iron skillet, serve them with dipping sauce, and double fry them!
If you follow the recipe above and follow through on these 3 points, you’ll make incredible cast iron fried chicken tenders!
Thank you for reading and please leave a comment or question below. I’ll be sure to answer you shortly.
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