How to Easily Make Perfect Buffalo Chicken Tenders
Inspired by my son, Will, and a little search, I discovered 'How to Easily Make Perfect Buffalo Chicken Tenders.' I don't believe I have ever had a buffalo chicken wrap before, but I searched for recipes on google. My thought was shredded chicken and maybe some rice in it, too. The pictures I was seeing included fried chicken, not cooked and shredded. Seeing the pictures, Will assured me this was what he had in mind, too.
Being a 'chicken tender' lover, these are almost always on hand here in the freezer. They are frozen side-by-side in one layer in a Ziploc freezer bag. When removed from the freezer, they are easily thawed in no time, by putting them in a pan of cold water in the sink.
The recipe I settled on was from Aaron McCargo Jr. for Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps. We used tortilla shells and added shredded cheese, too. His recipe for blue cheese sauce is amazing with these buffalo chicken tenders! Lemon juice brightens the blue cheese sauce and complements the heat of the buffalo chicken. Did I tell you these were amazingly tender?
The boys ran to the store to buy a couple of ingredients for the salsa. They could not find the Peppadew Sweet Marinated Peppers or any sweet marinated peppers. Now, I am not saying there were none in the store, but they could not find them. They called to find out what to do, and apparently, I never answer my phone.
So I googled a recipe for sweet marinated peppers. All Recipes.com has a recipe for marinated peppers. It just so happened I had one bell pepper in the fridge! The easy recipe calls for three peppers, so dividing the recipe by three, I ended up with the actual amount needed for the salsa recipe! The ingredients are a bell pepper, garlic cloves, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, fresh basil, fresh parsley, salt, and pepper. This recipe is another keeper!
So my cooking process for the tenders is a little different from Aaron's chicken breast. Using the chicken tenders, cut them in half lengthwise and remove that white tendon from each of them.
You will need: 1 pound of Chicken tenders
1/4 cup of Frank's Red Hot Wings Buffalo Sauce
1 cup of Flour
1 Tblsp. Salt
1 Tblsp. Pepper
1 Tblsp. Paprika
Olive oil for frying
Pour enough olive oil in a hot skillet to about one-quarter inch up the sides. On medium-high, heat the oil until hot. (The oil will bubble around the handle of a wooden spoon when it is hot.)
Pour the buffalo sauce in a bowl. Combine the flour, salt, pepper, and paprika in another medium sized bowl.
Dredge the chicken tender pieces in the buffalo sauce and then in the flour mixture. Shake off the excess flour and place gently in the skillet in the hot oil. Fry until golden brown on one side. (It will only take a couple of minutes since they are relatively small.) Turn and brown on the other side. Remove and place on a paper towel to remove excess oil.
Cover loosely with Reynold's Wrap while frying the second batch. I used a 10-inch skillet and fried two batches.
Serve with the blue cheese sauce, salsa, lettuce, shredded cheese, and tortillas.
This is one of those recipes that I will definitely be making again soon. As a matter of fact, a craving for these buffalo chicken tenders is overwhelming right now!
