The Ultimate Chicken Tender Plate At Home

0:00 I'm just gonna outright say it.

0:01 Every chicken tender meal that's out there is mid.

0:03 This one is not.

0:09 Fresh crispy fried chicken that is absolutely maxed out on flavor.

0:13 Kleslaw that you have loving dreams about, not nightmares.

0:17 And more importantly,

0:18 a sauce that you don't rely on, but a sauce that you want on everything.

0:22 That being said, let's make this, shall we?

0:24 We're going to start by marinating our chicken.

0:25 Then we'll prep our sides, sauce, and finally fry and serve.

0:29 Let's just have our marinade done and out of the way.

0:31 It's really, really, really simple.

0:32 2 cups of buttermilk, 1 tbsp plus a teaspoon of kosher salt,

0:37 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of MSG.

0:40 I would not recommend skipping that.

0:41 2 tesps of garlic powder, half a teaspoon of onion powder.

0:44 You might be tempted to go, "Oh, half a teaspoon.

0:46 I'm going to add more." Listen, you don't know what you're talking about.

0:48 Onion powder, for some reason,

0:50 has some superpower where it makes everything taste only

0:53 like onions if you use too much of it.

0:55 So, got to hold back a little bit on that one.

0:57 Two teaspoons of smoked paprika and one teaspoon of cayenne powder.

1:01 Not a half teaspoon.

1:02 Okay, Annie up.

1:03 I want a little heat.

1:04 All right.

1:04 You're going to whisk that together till thoroughly combined.

1:06 All those spices are nice and evenly distributed.

1:08 Now we essentially have the landing zone for all of our strips cuz you do have

1:12 to do a little bit of prep on tenders that a lot of people forget to do.

1:16 You'll need 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken tenders.

1:19 So, when it comes to tenders, I got a little secret for you.

1:22 A lot of the time whenever people make a little chicken tender recipe,

1:24 they're like, "Oh, here's a chicken tender." Well, guess what?

1:27 That's a tendon.

1:28 That's going to be really yucky to bite down on because it's chewy.

1:32 It will not melt when you cook it.

1:34 It will just stay exactly like it is.

1:36 And it's like biting into a rubber band.

1:37 So, first you need to look through your tenders

1:39 and find which ones have a tendon in the first place.

1:41 So, this is actually a little bit of a smaller one, right?

1:43 A little harder to get to.

1:44 Really easy.

1:45 Take a sharp knife, dig underneath the tendon.

1:47 Avoid removing too much meat here.

1:49 We just want to kind of pry it out.

1:50 Okay.

1:51 So, I'm kind of running my knife along underneath that tendon,

1:54 providing a little bit sawing just to loosen it.

1:56 The tendon is loose.

1:57 It's flapping around using a paper towel.

2:00 This just helps you grip it.

2:01 You don't have to use a paper towel,

2:02 but you're going to grip that little tendon.

2:04 Right.

2:04 So, I'm holding on to the tendon now.

2:05 And you could just pinch where it's attached,

2:08 but it's actually much easier if you take a fork,

2:10 hook it underneath that, and then gently pull that tendon out.

2:14 Sometimes the tendons will tear the tender into two pieces.

2:18 You're better off doing that than leaving this in there.

2:20 I'm telling you, it will ruin the eating experience.

2:22 Tender.

2:24 Tenden.

2:24 Do it with all of your chicken tenders.

2:26 Anytime you see them, take them out.

2:27 It'll take you like 10 minutes.

2:28 As you complete that process or if they don't have tendons in them,

2:31 place them in your marinade.

2:32 Every single tender.

2:34 You're going to get in there with your hands gently.

2:36 Just massage them.

2:37 They might make unusual noises.

2:38 Don't think about it too much.

2:39 The point is, we want them to be completely enroed, coated in the marinade.

2:44 I don't want one of them sticking to another and creating

2:46 a vacuum where a whole half of a tender isn't getting coated.

2:48 We want all of this coated in the marinade.

2:51 Then you're going to cover this tightly with plastic wrap.

2:53 Ideally, you want to let this rest for like 20 minutes.

2:55 You could bread them right away and it'll work just fine.

2:57 But the flavor penetration really only happens after a full night of marinating.

3:01 So depending on how much time you have.

3:03 If you have the time, make it ahead.

3:04 Make it 2 days ahead.

3:05 Your dredge.

3:06 You never want to overdo with the spices you put in here.

3:08 You put too many, they burn.

3:09 So we want to try to balance maximizing flavor without them burning.

3:12 So first, obviously, two cups of allpurpose flour.

3:16 Josh, what if I want to make it gluten-free?

3:17 I don't know.

3:18 use gluten-free flour.

3:18 It probably will be okay.

3:20 1 tbsp of kosher salt, 1 teaspoon of MSG.

3:22 Again, double MSG always.

3:24 2 tsp of garlic powder, half a teaspoon onion powder,

3:28 1 tsp of fresh ground black pepperc corn,

3:30 1 teasspoon of smoked paprika, 1 tspoon of cayenne.

3:33 We got a lot of 1 teaspoons here.

3:34 And finally, half a teaspoon of dried thyme.

3:37 I actually like to take the dried thyme

3:39 in my fingers and kind of like just grind it up.

3:41 Get it a little bit finer.

3:43 Get any whatever is remaining of the essential

3:45 oils that are in it, if there are any.

3:46 And you're going to whisk that together till thoroughly combined.

3:49 All one substance.

3:50 Not garlic powder over here, thyme over here, flour over here.

3:54 It's all one dredge.

3:57 That's how you know the spices are good.

3:59 What do we do now?

4:00 Fry seasoning.

4:01 You don't have to do this, but think about it.

4:03 Think about the times you're like when you get a really

4:04 good seasoned fry and you pop it in your mouth,

4:06 the crunch, but then the release of that seasoning,

4:09 you melt into your lawn chair or whatever the you're on.

4:12 If you're going to make a fry seasoning, this is the only one for these tenders.

4:15 Two teaspoons of chicken buan powder.

4:18 It could be likum ki.

4:19 It could be nor.

4:20 Whatever you want.

4:20 Just make sure it has MSG in it.

4:22 You could also just replace it with MSG, I guess.

4:24 Two teaspoons of smoked paprika.

4:25 1 teaspoon of cayenne powder.

4:27 1 teaspoon of garlic powder.

4:28 Half a teaspoon of cumin ground.

4:30 Half a teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper.

4:31 2 tespoons of kosher salt.

4:33 There's a lot of seasonings in 1 teaspoon of sugar.

4:35 So, it's a 2:1 salt sugar ratio.

4:37 Right.

4:38 It's not quite as salty as you would think.

4:39 It's actually a little bit sweet.

4:40 And that's what I want.

4:41 A/ teaspoon of dried thyme.

4:43 Whisk that together.

4:44 And you have a beautifully colored fry seasoning.

4:46 I mean, that's going to be good.

4:48 Coles slaw.

4:50 Relax.

4:50 I want to make a kleslaw that everybody desires that you go

4:53 to sleep and you think of this kleslaw crunching between your teeth.

4:56 You might even want to go to sleep with it as your pillow.

4:58 Maybe not that far, but kleslaw that is good.

5:01 So, you start with a head of green cabbage, like a medium smalish one.

5:05 Split that in half.

5:06 Now, you have this half here, right?

5:08 We need to remove the cord.

5:08 There's a couple ways to do that.

5:09 Easiest way to do it.

5:10 Split it in half.

5:11 Again, cut side down.

5:13 You can see the core here where the line is.

5:15 You're going to kind of follow that all the way through.

5:17 This line represents essentially exactly where that core is.

5:20 So, I'm going to cut across like that.

5:22 That's the core.

5:23 You don't have to remove it,

5:24 but like it does create a lot of inconsistency in your sliced cabbage.

5:28 Now, slicing this cabbage can be done one of two ways.

5:30 With a knife or with a finger death trap.

5:33 If you want it really thin and consistent,

5:35 I would use a finger death trap, which is what I will be doing.

5:37 So, you're going to cut this as thinly.

5:39 That was the bowl.

5:40 You're going to cut this as thinly as you possibly can.

5:43 I'm thinking like shaved essentially, right?

5:45 Like very, very, very thin like this.

5:47 Every head is going to be different.

5:49 The thing about cabbage is it produces way

5:51 more sliced cabbage than you could ever possibly need.

5:53 You only need about four cups.

5:55 Whatever's left, just save it in your fridge, roast it,

5:57 serve it, put it in a soup, use it for something else.

5:59 So, ideally, you want to try to dress

6:01 this as closely to you serving your food as possible.

6:04 You ever get kles just watery as?

6:06 So, I have a little trick to prevent

6:08 that from happening as much to your cabbage.

6:10 Specifically, I want you to season it with a generous pinch of salt.

6:13 Toss it with that salt.

6:14 And then I want you to kind of start to massage it.

6:16 Kind of squeeze the cabbage.

6:18 And what you'll notice is all of a sudden,

6:19 wait a minute, this cabbage is getting kind of wet.

6:21 That's what you want.

6:22 Toss again.

6:23 Now, it's really going to start to get juicy here.

6:25 So, this is doing two things.

6:26 It's curing your cabbage.

6:27 So, now your cabbage is seasoned with salt, which is great.

6:29 But more importantly, it's going to start to draw out that moisture.

6:33 You can let this sit for a minute or two.

6:34 It'll draw out even more.

6:36 What you can do is get a separate bowl,

6:38 ring out your cabbage over the sink just to get

6:40 a good amount of liquid out of it, right?

6:42 And place it in the new bowl.

6:43 Now you've essentially sped up the process

6:45 of the cabbage weeping water into your final product.

6:49 So you don't have to worry about that anymore.

6:50 Cabbage goes into the big bowl.

6:52 One large carrot grated.

6:53 Yeah, baby be careful how you grate this cuz sometimes your hand slips.

6:58 That's what your knuckle sounds like when it grates across the top of it.

7:01 So try to be cognizant of that.

7:02 To this you're going to add the zest of one lemon.

7:04 Now, we're going to add half a cup of mayonnaise.

7:06 This can be any mayonnaise, koopy, I don't care.

7:08 Homemade mayo, great.

7:10 One teaspoon of dijon mustard.

7:12 Two teaspoons of sugar, a half teaspoon of MSG.

7:15 You can also omit the MSG.

7:16 It's not a necessity, right?

7:18 Fresh cracked black pepper.

7:19 Pinch of salt to taste.

7:20 2 tbsps of apple cider vinegar.

7:22 You can use either tongs or gloves.

7:24 And you're just going to toss this together

7:25 and dress it until thoroughly and fully coated.

7:28 You can call that done.

7:28 But if you want to add a little bit of flare, right, a little bit of color,

7:31 but also just like nice flavor,

7:33 you can add about one to two tablespoons of thinly sliced chive.

7:37 And then just toss those in there.

7:38 It just adds like a depth of flavor that most kleslaws don't have.

7:42 I'm putting this as optional because it's another thing you got

7:45 to go buy and it's obviously not a traditional kleslaw at that point,

7:47 but tastes really good.

7:49 Just toss that all in there.

7:50 Make sure it's thoroughly combined and your kleslaw is ready.

7:53 I'm tired of the toast that they give you at these chicken tender shops.

7:58 This is Texas, mother.

7:59 Well, actually, you may not be in Texas, but I am.

8:01 So, we have Texas toast.

8:03 To begin, small saucepan, one stick or half a cup of butter, unsalted.

8:11 Heat that to medium heat, and just melt that.

8:13 Your bread choice really matters.

8:15 I want anemic white bread, not homemade bread, the industrial kind.

8:19 You got to trust me.

8:21 Thick cut if you can find it.

8:22 In Texas, we got literal Texas toast white bread.

8:26 It's square, thick, it's soft like a cloud.

8:29 Something like this is what you want.

8:31 Once your butter is melted, cut off the heat.

8:34 You're going to add four cloves of finely chopped garlic.

8:36 Please, fresh garlic for God's sake.

8:38 And then 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of kosher salt.

8:40 Stir that all together.

8:42 Again, the heat is off.

8:42 We're not cooking this any further.

8:44 I just want this to kind of like act almost

8:45 as a tea and gently coax the garlicky flavor in there.

8:49 Now, let that sit for like 20 30 seconds.

8:51 I've got my bread.

8:52 And this portion is very simple.

8:53 Okay, you need yourself a little pastry brush.

8:55 Swirl it through the butter.

8:56 Pick up some of that garlic.

8:57 And I want you to lightly brush each

8:59 slice with your garlic mixture on both sides.

9:02 Don't overdo it because it will absorb quite a lot of butter.

9:04 We just want one thin layer across each piece.

9:07 So, just pop this bad boy into an oven at 375 Fahrenheit for 10 to 12 minutes.

9:12 Now, we do have a sauce, but I believe a good chicken tender needs no sauce.

9:16 The sauce is just a little extra oomph if you want it.

9:18 Now, we all know canes primarily exist because of their sauce,

9:21 not because of their tenders.

9:23 And this sauce is better than their sauce.

9:24 And these tenders are better than their tenders.

9:26 And my shoes better and my hair better.

9:28 All right.

9:28 Okay.

9:29 So, we're going to do one cup of mayo.

9:31 I'd recommend one homemade.

9:32 The second dukes, the third koopy.

9:35 Those are the only three you can use here.

9:37 To that you're going to add 1/4 cup of ketchup.

9:39 2 tbsps of dijon mustard.

9:41 You could also use yellow mustard if you want.

9:43 1 tbsp of warty shersty.

9:45 1 teaspoon of white distilled vinegar.

9:47 Half a teaspoon of garlic powder, not fresh garlic.

9:49 1 teaspoon of MSG.

9:51 And optionally, you can add a tablespoon of Sriracha if you wanted

9:55 a little bit of heat and if you happen to have it,

9:56 but it's not a necessity at all in this flavor.

9:59 Season that lightly to taste with salt, little fresh cracked black pepper,

10:02 and then just whisk that till thoroughly combined.

10:04 See, doesn't that remind you of somebody's sauce?

10:06 But way better.

10:07 Breading this chicken before you even start to identify

10:09 what your dry hand wet hand should be.

10:11 Typically, non-dominant is wet hand, dominant is dry hand.

10:14 So, I'm going to take my wet hand, just kind of dig into this marinade,

10:18 and I want you to, you see how it's kind of running off my fingers?

10:20 I want you to gently just sort of flick it into your dredge.

10:23 Give that a little toss.

10:24 Mix it together.

10:25 And then do that one more time.

10:26 Flick, flick, flick.

10:27 And what you're doing is you're creating little beads of sort of clumpy flour.

10:31 That is the key to the flakiness cuz they're going to flatten

10:34 and then open up when you bread and then fry this.

10:36 So take a chicken tender, drop it in your flour,

10:39 and then just gently kind of press

10:40 and toss until completely and thoroughly coated.

10:43 No bald spots whatsoever.

10:46 It's okay if some areas are lightly coated,

10:47 but generally you want to avoid bald spots.

10:49 You want full coverage on this tender.

10:52 Shake off the excess.

10:53 Pop onto a sheet tray.

10:54 And then repeat with all your tenders.

10:55 You don't have to do one at a time.

10:56 You can probably put two or three at a time.

10:58 I would avoid overcrowding this cuz then you're going to end up

11:00 with like a clumpy flour mess that doesn't have any flour left.

11:04 Texas toast is done.

11:05 Take that out of the oven.

11:06 Look at these beauties.

11:07 It probably smells very good in your kitchen and that's a good sign.

11:10 You're going to finish these off with a little bit of fresh chopped parsley.

11:13 That's optional.

11:13 I think it makes it look extra Texas toasty.

11:16 You're going to serve these warm with your chicken tender meal.

11:19 these for some reason come out a little too early, you can always take them out,

11:22 let them cool down, and then just warm

11:23 them back up wrapped in foil before you serve.

11:25 You could even make this ahead of time and then just rewarm it in the oven.

11:29 French fries.

11:30 I'm not going to make you make your French fries from scratch.

11:32 I'm going to be honest, in this case,

11:34 it's very rarely worth it cuz you're already putting in so much effort here.

11:37 Personally, if it were me,

11:38 I would just find the best bag of frozen French fries you can find.

11:41 These extra crispy Oita fries are fine.

11:43 You already have fry oil that's ready.

11:45 You might as well get some frozen fries so you can double up.

11:47 So before you fry your chicken in a pot

11:49 that's filled with vegetable oil a little over halfway.

11:52 So in this case we have a sixQ pot

11:53 and we've got about 3 quarts of vegetable oil in there.

11:56 Get your frozen fries and in batches you're going to fry them at 350 Fahrenheit.

12:00 Now just let that fry till the bubbles begin to subside.

12:02 They're golden brown and crisp like this.

12:05 All right.

12:05 Once those are dropped.

12:06 If you made the seasoning, hit them with seasoning.

12:09 You want to hit them immediately when they come out from the heat.

12:11 That way the spices actually adhere.

12:13 If you let this cool down completely, they will not adhere.

12:15 They'll just fall right off.

12:16 Trust me.

12:17 Once those are out, you can now fry

12:19 your tendies in batches of three to four tenders.

12:22 We've got 1, two, three.

12:25 Lay away from you.

12:26 And you're just going to let that fry until they're golden brown,

12:28 the bubbling has subsided, and more importantly,

12:30 the internal temperature is 165 Fahrenheit.

12:34 To serve, lay down a generous portion of your French fries,

12:37 as little or as much as you like, followed by your crispy tenders,

12:40 your kleslaw and sauce, ideally in ramicans, and then your toast,

12:42 which has been sliced in half on a bias.

12:45 You can do two slices to a person, three slices to a person.

12:47 Now, if this ain't a three-piece tender meal, I don't know what is.

12:50 People come over to your house to see this, they're already going to be happy.

12:53 But how does it taste?

12:54 Got a beautiful tender here.

12:56 Little dip.

12:58 First of all, you hearing that?

12:59 The crunch that already is something that a lot

13:01 of chicken tender places just don't have.

13:03 They're not crispy.

13:04 They have like a thick chewy breading.

13:06 This is like wispy crispy.

13:07 The seasoning on it so nice.

13:09 Got a little bit of heat and then the sweet richness from the sauce.

13:11 everything you could ever want, but just maxed out on flavor.

13:15 The fries are great, even if they weren't seasoned.

13:17 But man, seasoning on this, not spicy at all,

13:20 but instead there's almost like a smoky sweetness to the spicing on that.

13:23 A little bit of kleslaw.

13:26 Absolutely nobody can compete with this.

13:28 If you don't like kleslaw, this is the one that you might be able

13:31 to get over it cuz it's just so refreshing.

13:33 This still tastes of fresh carrot, of fresh cabbage.

13:35 It's got a good crunch.

13:36 Even the dijon mustard has a little bit of little bit of zing to it.

13:40 But this shockingly,

13:43 I feel so dumb saying this, but the Texas toast might be one of the best parts.

13:47 This, it is so good.

13:48 If you wrap a chicken tender in that and dip it in the sauce, a little colelaw,

13:52 you feel like you've died and have been resuscitated

13:55 back to life in a beautiful land of chicken tender.

13:57 Anyone can make this.

13:58 You can pick and choose what you want to make.

14:00 Maybe you just make the Texas toast in the tenders.

14:02 You have every maxed out element to make

14:04 the perfect chicken tender meal at home.

14:07 It's yours for free.

14:08 the links in the description on the website for the full

14:09 written recipe if you want to print it out.

14:11 Love you so much.

14:12 Subscribe.

14:12 Bye.