Chicken tenderloins represent one of the best buys in the grocery store. The tenderloins are those small pieces on the whole chicken breast. The chicken tender or tenderloin is a strip of breast meat attached to the ribs, that is part of the breast, but it’s not really connected so that it can be separated and used as it is.
They are generally removed by the butchers when they make chicken loins, the most popular cut. So I suppose that’s why they are so inexpensive. But it’s the best white meat on the entire chicken. Recently, I bought a four-pack of chicken tenderloins from Sam’s. Each pouch had six tenderloins – perfect for just Nancy and me.
For a quick and easy meal last week, I thawed a pack of the tenderloins and made my version of Chicken Fingers. They were incredibly tasty and tender – maybe as much flavor as you can get from a white piece of chicken.
Start to finish, it was about 30 minutes – so easy to prepare.
Turn the oven on to 425. Drain the package of tenderloins, pat dry and set aside. You’ll need 4 bowls. One for the butter, one for flour, one for an egg/water wash and one for Italian Breadcrumbs.
Melt a half stick of butter (please, no margarine) in one bowl. Put a half-cup of flour in the second bowl and add salt, pepper and a pinch of garlic powder. In the 3rd bowl, beat an egg with a tablespoon of water. In the last bowl, add 1 cup Italian style breadcrumbs.
Dip each chicken finger in butter, then flour, then egg mixture and finally coat with the breadcrumbs/butter. Put the chicken fingers in a medium hot skillet with 2 T of olive oil and fry quickly – till just golden brown on each side. Remove from pan, cook the other fingers, then put in the oven to finish – maybe 8 to 10 minutes. Do not overcook. You want them so they are just done and not running pink juices. They turn out super tender and delicious. Serve with honey mustard if you’d like, but they are pretty darned good just like they are.
Yumm!
Yummy Chicken Fingers (for 2)
6 chicken tenderloins
1 c flour
S & P
½ t garlic powder
½ stick butter
1 egg
1 T. water
1 c Italian breadcrumbs
2 T olive oil
