Homemade Chicken Strips

One of our favorite things to eat out is chicken strips.  I know, we’re not kids anymore, but who cares.  Chicken strips (when done properly) are truly tasty things.  Since we’ve been dieting, of course, we haven’t had them.  Since we had buttermilk left over from the catfish, I decided it would be a great time to make some at home.  Utilizing the same raised baking method I use for my homemade tortilla chips and a dozen other things (by setting 2 cooling racks inside my baking pan so that heat can circulate all around what’s being cooked), I wound up with these fabulously crispy strips that rival many of the ones we love in restaurants–for a fraction of the fat and calories.

Ingredients:

• 2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into 1″ strips
• low-fat buttermilk
• your choice of breading (I have a bag I keep in my kitchen where I throw corn flakes, corn chips, breadcrumbs–all pulverized in the food processor, so my breading is a mix of I’m not entirely sure what)

Directions:

1. Marinate the chicken in the buttermilk for at least 4 hours (I did it overnight because we wound up doing something else for dinner last night).
2. When ready to prepare, grab a pie plate and sprinkle a layer of your breading material over the bottom.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
4. With one hand, pull a strip out of the buttermilk and place in the pie plate.
5. With your other hand (the dry one), grab a handful off your breading material and pat it onto the chicken until it is entirely covered.
6. With the dry hand, place the breaded strip onto the rack on your baking sheet.
7. Repeat until all chicken is coated (and frankly I have no idea how much breading I used as plenty of it didn’t stick after it was wet and went into the garbage).
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until chicken is golden brown.

Jacques (that’s my sommalier), says Bon Appetit!

Printable version.