Tonight for supper I made one of my familys favorite meals. Homemade chicken strips. Don’t be scared, they are really a pretty simple and very versatile dish.

The list of ingredients is pretty simple:

Chicken tenders about 2 1/2 lbs. (can also use breasts cut into strips)

1 cup flour with 2 T. Seasoned salt

1 egg with 1/4 cup water

Crushed Butter Flavor Crackers roughly 1 tube

Set up a dipping station like I have shown above.  Mix the flour and seasoned salt. This is the perfect time to add any other seasoning that you may like.  Mix the egg and water together. Now is the important part: don’t forget the wet hand dry hand rule. Use one hand in the flour and cracker crumbs and the other for the chicken and the egg.  If you use this method you never end up with the dreaded breaded hand that looks like it should be deep-fried.

If you are cooking them right away I usually start heating my oil right now.  You don’t need a lot, just enough to cover the bottom of the pan.

If you are not going to cook them right away you can put them in the fridge until you are ready, these are great to make ahead.  The longer they stand the better the coating holds on.

I dip the chicken strips one at a time until they are all done, placing them on a clean plate as I go. This is not a complicated process but as you can see it does get a little messy.

Fry the strips in batches a few at a time, without crowding the pan.  I heat my oil on medium high, and I know it is ready if I drop a few cracker crumbs in and they sizzle. Cook them about 3 minutes per side, you know when to turn them because you can see the edges getting brown.  As they get done remove them to a clean plate with a couple of paper towels on it to drain any excess oil and cool just a little.

Now you are finished! This is my familys favorite version, but you can spice them up any way you like.  The butter flavor crackers give them a really unique flavor.  If you have any leftovers you can reheat them the next day in a frying pan with just a touch of oil.

If you know you are going to have more than you need you can put them in a freezer bag and keep ’em till you need ‘em.  I love them for days when the kids are at school and I need a quick lunch.