Nashville Chicken Tenders

3 nashville chicken tenders on square slice of bread in small red basket with pickles

Print Recipe

5 from 3 votes

These Nashville Chicken Tenders are spicy, crispy and absolute packed with flavour!

Prep Time20

Cook Time15

Marinating Time2

Total Time2 35

Course: Finger Food

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Author: Chris Collins

Cost: £2.50 / $3

Equipment

Suitably Sized Pot or Cast Iron Skillet & Tongs (for deep frying)
Medium Sized Bowl, Cling Film & Whisk (for marinating)
Large Shallow Dish or Curved Baking Tray (for dredging chicken)
Wire Rack & Baking Tray (for resting fried chicken)
Small Bowl & Brush (for glaze)
Kitchen Thermometer

Ingredients

Chicken

1.3lb / 600g Chicken Tenders (see notes)
3-4 cups / 750ml - 1litre Vegetable, Peanut or Sunflower Oil

Marinade

1 cup / 240ml Buttermilk
1/4 cup / 60ml Pickle Juice (Gherkin juice in UK)
1/4 cup / 60ml Hot Sauce
1 Egg
1 tsp Salt

Dry Mix

1 3/4 cups / 250g Plain/All Purpose Flour
2 tsp EACH: Paprika, Cayenne Pepper
1 tsp EACH: Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Baking Powder, Salt
1/2 tsp Black Pepper

Glaze (see notes)

1/2 cup / 120ml leftover Oil, from deep frying
1/2 cup / 120ml Hot Sauce (see notes)
2 tbsp Honey, or to sweetness preference
1.5 tsp Smoked Paprika
1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
Salt, to taste

Instructions

In a medium sized mixing bowl whisk together buttermilk, pickle juice, hot sauce, egg and salt. Add in the chicken tenders then tightly cover and marinate in the fridge. 4+ hours best, 2 hours minimum. Get out the fridge 30mins before needed.
In a large shallow dish or curved baking tray combine dry mix. One by one take a chicken tender straight out of the bowl and place it in the dry mix. Use your hands to thoroughly coat the chicken. Really press the flour into every crack and crevice to create lots of tiny flaky bits. Give it a shake, then place to one side and repeat.
Heat up the oil in a suitable-sized pot or cast iron skillet to 350F/175C. Working in 3-4 batches, carefully place the tenders into the hot oil and leave for a few mins. The temp will drop slightly to around 320F/160C, just try and maintain it as best you can. Flip the tenders and continue frying for another few mins until deep golden and visibly crispy. Remove and place on a wire rack with a tray underneath to catch excess oil. Timings will depend on the size of tenders so just be vigilant. The chicken should be white and piping hot through the centre.
Once all the tenders have fried, allow the oil to cool slightly then scoop out 1/2cup and pour into a small bowl. Add in hot sauce, honey, smoked paprika, garlic powder & salt (if needed) and whisk into a glaze.
Brush the tenders all over with the glaze then serve up and enjoy!

Video

Notes

a) Chicken Tenders - If you can't find chicken tenders you can just slice up some chicken breast. Strictly speaking you'll end up with fried chicken strips instead of tenders, but that's fine. For reference, 1.3lb/600g is around 16 tenders.

b) Hot Sauce - Use a hot or mild brand based on your spice preference. I like Cholula (not crazy spicy/vinegary).

c) Glaze - Traditionally you would use cayenne pepper in the glaze, I just much prefer hot sauce. You can sub cayenne if you'd prefer, just increase the amount of cooking oil to 3/4cup to make up for the lost liquid. I recommend starting at 1 tbsp cayenne pepper and working up (some recipes go as high as 6 tbsp!). By the same token if you're going to use hot sauce, obviously hot sauce brands will differ in spice level, so just work to preference. I usually go for 1/2 cup, which gives a good kick of spice. If you want it SPICIER than 1/2 cup hot sauce then add in cayenne pepper 1 tsp at a time.

d) Pickle Juice - This is simply just the brine from a jar or pickles (Gherkins in UK). This adds flavour and helps tenderize the chicken. If you don't have this just sub more buttermilk.

e) Serving - From my experience in Nashville I saw a lot of places serving tenders on a thick slice of bread in a small basket, usually with pickles/gherkins and more hot sauce & honey on the side. I also enjoy them with a dip (Blue Cheese or Ranch).

f) Calories - Tricky to calculate, but based on 16 tenders total (calories for 1 tender). Assumes half the marinade sticks, all of the dry mix (overestimate) and 1.5tsp oil per tenders. No sides.

Nutrition