Good Ol' Fried Chicken

I know that the week before Christmas probably isn't the ideal time to pull the deep fryer back out, but that didn't stop me! My husband loves a buffalo chicken sandwich he gets at Publix and wanted to recreate it at home. Instead of sub rolls, we made these sandwiches on wraps.

So starting with a Sam's sized package of boneless skinless chicken tenders, I went to town with a traditional breading set up. We seasoned the flour with salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. Then on to the egg wash and then plain bread crumbs. After what seemed like an eternity, I finally got through the entire package.

A quick glance in my Professional Cooking textbook suggested a cooking temperature for 325-350F, until the chicken was done. Our first batch of 4 chicken strips went into the fryer preheated to 350F. Without knowing exactly how long the chicken would need to cook, we left them in for about 10 minutes. The breading was quite dark at this point, but we didn't want to remove the chicken before it was ready. A quick cut revealed that we had cooked the chicken thoroughly.

We lowered the cooking temperature of the second batch to 325 and increased the cook time to 12-15 minutes, depending on the size and number of strips in the basket. This turned out to be the ideal setup. Luckily we were able to get it right by the second batch and we didn't need to over or under cook several batches before getting it right.

Buffalo Chicken Wraps:
Boneless, skinless chicken tenderloins
flour
salt
pepper
onion powder
garlic powder
eggs, lightly beaten
plain bread crumbs
oil, for frying
whole wheat wraps
cheddar cheese, sliced or shredded
yellow mustard, if desired
Texas Pete hot sauce
dill pickle chips
lettuce

1. Prepare the chicken: Trim chicken as needed. Combine the flour, salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder in a dish. Place the beaten eggs in a second dish and the bread crumbs in the third. Dredge the chicken tenders in the flour mixture, removing any excess before coating in the egg wash. Cover the chicken with bread crumbs.

2. Fry the breaded chicken strips in small batches (the amount per batch will be determined by the size of your fryer) in a deep fryer preheated to 325F. Fry for 12-15 minutes. Drain on paper towels. Check to make sure the cooked through.

3. Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces and transfer to a large (or lidded) bowl. Pour on the desired amount of Texas Pete hot sauce and toss to combine.

4. Prepare the wraps with the desired ingredients. Enjoy!!!