Pretzel Chicken

A couple of chicken tenders sit in buttermilk.

I have a package of chicken tenders thawed out & planning on frying them for supper tonight. Sarah & I are talking & she asks the world wide recognized question: “Whatcha doing for dinner?” Now for those of you that don’t speak “teen”, that translates into “What are you cooking for dinner?” Next is the comment “When are you going to fix pretzel chicken? … in my lifetime?” Sigh. Mothers are NOT the only ones who know how to press the guilt button.

As I tell her, she’s in luck on her timing; I already have chicken tenders thawed. I don’t have any pretzels in the house so it’s agreed that it’s Sarah’s responsibility to make sure I buy pretzels on our way home from her piano lessons. Grab a couple of small storage containers & pour some buttermilk in one. Add about a cup and a half of flour to the other container & add some salt & pepper to it.

Prepared flour & a chicken tender

First the chicken tenders sit in a bath of buttermilk for a short time. Turn the tenders so all sides of the tender gets coated with the buttermilk. Next, the tenders are placed in the prepared flour container. For this container, I hunted up the lid that fits the container. With the tender inside, I place the lid on the container & shake until it has a light coating of flour on it. Personally, I prefer using a small, lidded container to using a bag, ziploc or otherwise. Gently removing the tender from the container, I shake off any excess flour & lay it on a plate. Once I have finished all of the tenders, I cover the plate & stick it in the refrigerator. Time to leave for piano!

Crushed pretzel bits

After piano, we stop at the store to pick up a bag of pretzels. A small bag is all that is needed. Once we get home, Sarah decides to be helpful & is going to start crushing the pretzels for me. Oh my! Removing the pretzels from the flimsy bag they’re sold in before trying to crush them is a wise idea as Sarah learns the hard way!

While Sarah sweeps pretzels up from the kitchen floor, I pour some of the pretzels into a heavy ziploc bag & proceed to beat on them with a hammer. It doesn’t take much effort to smash the pretzels. Be careful NOT to smash them too finely as you want to have the pretzel taste.

As the pretzels get crushed I put them in the small container with the lid. Yes, I washed it out for this reason before we left for piano. You might prefer a different method but I find I make less mess using the small lidded container. Once again, it’s a matter of placing the chicken in the container, putting the lid on it, shaking until the chicken is covered & laying the chicken out on a plate or pie pan to set.

Pretzel-covered chicken tenders

While the chicken sits, I start the rice and green beans. Nothing fancy with the green beans as Sarah is such a picky eater, I can barely get by with a little mild seasoning on can beans. As a long time Southern woman, an iron skillet is one of my favorite kitchen tools.  An inch of vegetable oil in the iron skillet and it’s just a matter of letting the oil get hot enough to fry the tender. Don’t crowd them in the skillet as the temperature of the oil will go down and the chicken won’t cook properly.

Pretzel chicken tenders frying in the iron skillet.

Personally, I find a medium-high temperature gets the best result when fixing the pretzel chicken. Let them cook all the way on one side then gently turn them with your tongs. The less turning you do, the fewer pretzel bits will fall off the chicken. Finish cooking the tenders. Then pull them out & drain them before serving. Then it’s only a matter of plating them up with the rice and green beans. The adults also had fresh home-grown tomato slices.

Dinner is ready!