Homemade Chicken Strips

4 skinless, boneless Chicken Breasts
buttermilk in one bowl - enough to submerge chicken strips
1-1/2 cups flour in another bowl
lots of pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
2 to 3 Tbsp. Lawry's Seasoned Salt
Canola or vegetable oil

Rinse the chicken and cut into strips. If you can, cut the breasts into finger width strips while still partially frozen, they are so much easier to cut.

Place chicken strips in bowl and cover with buttermilk. (If you don't have any you can make some by adding 1 Tbsp white vinegar to 1 cup of milk, as much as you need.) Soak for at least 20 minutes or longer. (Something came up and I had to leave mine overnight and it was great.)

Now, add 2 to 3 Tbsp Lawry's (I used 3 Tbsp.) to flour in bowl. I added lots of restaurant grind black pepper, we love pepper. I also added 1/2 tsp cayenne because we like spicy. I did not add extra salt. Stir the dry ingredients all together, mix well.

Drizzle into dry ingredients, 1/4 to 1/2 cup milk and stir with fork until it is incorporated into flour and you have a combination of small flour pebbles and flour. (These pebbles will stick to the chicken and make them extra crispy. Yum!)

Note: You can continue coating chicken until all is ready to cook, and then flash freeze them on a cookie sheet, and then store them in large ziploc bags for later if you want to.

Now, heat 1 inch of canola, or vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium low to medium heat. You want it hot enough to sizzle and turn the chicken strips a nice golden brown but not so hot that they will burn easily. (Rachel Ray teaches a trick for this. Stick the handle end of a wooden spoon in the hot oil. If bubbles bubble up and around the spoon handle, it is ready. This works amazingly well for me.)

Now, with tongs, grab some of the chicken strips from the buttermilk and place them in the flour mixture. Stir them a bit with the tongs, turning them over to thoroughly coat, then lift them out and drop them into the just-right hot oil. Remove them to a plate with paper towels when they are golden brown. They will look just lovely. Continue cooking a few at a time, not crowded in the pan, until they are all done. It takes about a minute and a half on each side, you can tell, you know what crispy and golden brown looks like.

Serve with your favorite dipping sauce. My husband likes Barbecue. I like Honey-Mustard but I have to confess, I had nibbled so many by the time I was ready to serve the first time I made this, I never even tried them in the dip until the second time.
Eve in WI

http://www.nancyskitchen.com