Cooking For Kids - Breaded Chicken Fingers

By Christine Szalay Kudra

Kids can be notoriously hard to cook for and the fact that one week's favorite can turn into something hateful the next does not make life easier. There are a few recipes however, which will always appeal to kids. Breaded chicken fingers are easy to make and kids tend to love these. They might even forgive you for serving some broccoli or carrots on the side, as long as they have some hot and delicious chicken fingers and something to dip them into.

Boneless chicken is ideal for making these tasty dippers. Perhaps you have made a recipe for chicken parmesan or some grilled chicken recipes with boneless chicken, in which case you will already know how easy this economical ingredient is to work with and how versatile it is. You can buy chicken fingers readymade and frozen, of course, so you might be wondering why you would want to learn how to make chicken fingers but homemade chicken recipes always taste better than readymade ones, which is a great reason to make your own.

How to Serve Chicken Dippers

Serve breaded chicken fingers with ketchup, mayonnaise, salsa, or any dip you like. A sweet and sour dip is another good choice and barbecue sauce is great for dipping chicken fingers into. Serve some French fries or mashed potatoes on the side, as well as one or two vegetables. Chicken dippers should be drained on paper towels before you serve them, to soak up most of the grease, and then they are nice served hot. They can be eaten with the fingers or with cutlery.

Recipe for Chicken Fingers

In the following recipe, the chicken is marinated in a garlic, egg, and buttermilk mixture before being coated in the breadcrumbs. This tenderizes the chicken and gives it a wonderful texture and taste. This recipe serves six people or makes enough for ten kids to snack on. This is a great recipe to make if your kids have friends coming over.

You will need:

• 1 beaten egg
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 quart oil, for frying
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 6 chicken breast halves, no bones, or skin
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder

How to make it:

Cut the chicken breast halves into half inch strips and put them in a big Ziploc bag. Combine the garlic powder, buttermilk, and egg and pour this mixture into the bag with the chicken. Leave it in the refrigerator for three hours to marinate. Combine the breadcrumbs, flour, baking powder, and salt in another bag. Take the chicken out of the first bag and drain it. Throw away the marinade.

Add the chicken to the bag with the breadcrumbs in and shake it well. Heat the oil to 375 degrees F in a skillet, and then fry the chicken in the oil until the juices run clear and the breadcrumb coating is golden brown.

Drain on paper towels and serve with your preferred dipping sauce.

There are grilled chicken recipes for adults and kids but if you want to thrill your kids, using your boneless chicken to make breaded chicken dippers is something they will love. Another time you might like to try an easy recipe for chicken parmesan.

BonelessChickenRecipe.com - Chicken so delightfully moist, you can almost smell it through your monitor.