Snacks & Appetizers: Homemade Chicken Fingers

Making chicken fingers at home sounds difficult, but it's really not. The secret is the seasoning in the batter, the freshness of the bread crumbs, and a little patience. You will not be disappointed in the results. They'll be so good, and look so impressive, some people won't believe you made them yourself!


A note on bread crumbs. You can buy them in boxes at the store, yes, and that will work fine for this recipe. But I highly recommend that you use fresh bread crumbs. You can sometimes find these in the bakery section of your local grocery store. If you can't, you can also buy some bread, break it into bits, let it dry out overnight, and turn it into bread crumbs. If you bake bread, you can do this with bread you've baked as well.


Ingredients


4 chicken breasts, skinless and boneless
2 cups bread crumbs
oil for frying


For the Batter
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups water
⅔ tbsp sea salt
½ tbsp thyme
½ tbsp basil
⅓ tbsp oregano
1 tbsp celery salt
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp dried mustard
4 tbsp paprika
2 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp giner
3 tbsp white pepper


Preparation


Start by slicing the chicken breasts into strips. Depending on the size of the breast, you can get 4 or 6 strips out of each breast. Place the strips on a plate lined with a paper towel. Pat them dry and set aside. Place the bread crumbs in a shallow dish and set off to one side.


Mix your batter by placing everything in a large bowl and whisking together. You need a fairly thick batter than will stick to the chicken, so you may have to add a little more flour depending on the humidity. You may even have to add a little extra water. It's not an exact science, but equal water and flour portions usually works well enough.


Place the oil on the stove (or use a deep fryer) and set it to medium heat. Don't fry on the stove higher than this or you could start a fire. You don't need more heat anyway. The chicken pieces aren't that large. They'll cook easily enough.


Set up your frying station so that your chicken will go from the plate, to the batter, to the bread crumbs, to a clean plate, to the oil, and then onto a wire rack with a towel under it for draining. This will make the frying process easier.


Take each piece of chicken and roll it in the batter. Make sure it is fully covered. Now roll it in the bread crumbs, coating the batter in crumbs. At this point, you can place the chicken on the clean plate and prepare several other strips. Don't crowd them on the plate. They shouldn't even be touching each other.


Now you will fry the chicken fingers. Don't put too many in the fryer or pot at once. They definitely shouldn't be crowded. I fry 6 at a time. Place them gently into the oil and fry for 3 minutes. Turn the chicken fingers with tongs and fry for a further 3 minutes. Remove from oil and place on wire rack to drain.


You can serve these with a variety of dips. Try honey dill, honey mustard, BBQ, or the ever-popular ketchup. They'll definitely be a crowd pleaser.