ALL AMERICAN 0VEN-"FRIED" CHICKEN TENDERS

I love chicken tenders. They are just the right amount. I can usually eat a whole chicken breast, but often I either leave part of it uneaten, or worse, I eat it all and then feel stuffed the rest of the day.  

But TWO chicken tenders are just right.

Therefore, I am constantly looking for different recipes for preparing them. "Variety is the spice of life."  Right?  Sometimes I look at recipes for cooking chicken breast to see if I can adapt it for chicken tenders.

This particular recipe by Mr. Food was actually intended for chicken legs.  So I just made a couple of changes -- mostly in how long and at what temperature to cook them.

I make my own bread crumbs.  Sometimes I just use the heels from "week"- old bread (usually a whole grain kind). The last ones I made, I used a loaf of bread from our local Hy-Vee  grocery store.  It was a round loaf of bread called Baking Stone with Sesame seeds. I brought it home from Hillcrest Thrift Shop--left for the volunteers to take home. Instead of eating it, I let it get hard and then with a little difficulty, cut it into hunks that I could put in my blender and grind up. It made super fine bread crumbs that I love. I have almost used them up and I haven't seen any lately at Hillcrest so I guess I will have to go buy a loaf at the store.  

Anyway back to the chicken tenders.  They turned out perfectly!  Definitely a "keeper".

 ALL AMERICAN OVEN-"FRIED" CHICKEN TENDERS

(for 4 - 8 chicken tenders)

1/4 - 1/2 cup of flour (start with 1/4 cup and add more if necessary)
1              egg
1 - 3        tablespoons of milk (I used 2 tablespoons)
1/2          cup fine dry bread crumbs
1/4         teaspoon dried oregano
1/4         teaspoon garlic powder
1/4         teaspoon onion powder
1/4         teaspoon salt
1/4         teaspoon pepper
1/2         teaspoon paprika
1/4         teaspoon dried basil
4 - 8       chicken tenders
3             tablespoons margarine (probably more if making closer to 8 tenders)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Place the flour in a shallow dish (like a pie plate).

In a second shallow dish, beat the egg with the milk, just til mixed.

In a plastic bag, mix together the bread crumbs and seasonings.

In the flour, coat both sides of a chicken tender.

Then place the tender in the egg mixture turning it over to completely coat it with the mixture.

Then drop the tender in the bag with the seasoned crumbs and shake to cover the tender. Before I took the tender out, I made sure it was completely covered with the crumbs. It won't be a heavy coating.

Place on a plate and continue until you have all the tenders done.

In a shallow baking pan (I used a "brownie" size pan to cook my four.) melt the margarine in the oven.  Leave only long enough to melt the margarine. You will need all of it in the pan.

One at a time, place a tender in the pan to coat one side with the melted margarine. Then turn it over to coat the other side. Continue til all are in the pan. If you are making 8 tenders, you will probably need to use more margarine. You want to have all the tenders coated with the margarine on both sides.

Bake for 10 minutes. Then remove from oven and turn all of the tenders over. Return to oven and cook 10 more minutes or until meat is no longer pink.  (20 minutes was perfect for my 4 tenders.)

So good with some frozen black eyed peas.