Chicken Tenders - Baked the Nagi Way

Yep, another recipe from Nagi's book Dinner.  I love that she bakes rather than fries, and this is a genius idea of hers to toast the panko breadcrumbs first before baking, for that extra crunch.  How did we get by before panko?  Well, I never used to use breadcrumbs.  I always used cornflake crumbs instead!  Which I still do sometimes; especially good for coeliacs of course.  

Speaking of coeliacs, one of Mr P.'s sisters is a genuine case, so can't eat wheat and so on.  But another sister is a bit of a drama queen hypochondriac, and just decided not to eat it for no reason whatsoever.  We went to lunch with her one day, where she made a huge fuss about having to have gluten-free bread, then proceeded to leave it untouched on her plate.  The waiter was soooo not impressed :=)  As were we!  Family are weird!

serve with a bit of salad (wow, everything is beige!)

Serves 3-4:

ingredients:

90g./3.2 oz panko breadcrumbs - see Notes

500g/1.1 lb chicken tenderloins

1/2-1 tsp sea salt

1-2 Tbs parsley, finely chopped

Batter:

1 large egg

1 Tbs mayonnaise

1.5 Tbs mustard or 1-2 heaped tsp harissa paste - see Notes 

2 Tbs plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

Serve with condiment of your choice: try sweet chilli sauce and kewpie mayo (as I did) or tomato sauce or tomato relish - you get the picture

Method:

On goes your oven to 200C/390F to heat up

Grab a large baking tray, and line it with baking paper

Spread the panko over the paper, and into the oven for 5-7 minutes - watch it carefully after 5 as mine was done by then (and give the tray a shake halfway through baking)

Tip it into a bowl, and leave the baking paper on the tray for the tenderloins

Place a wire cake rack over the baking paper, and either brush or spray the wires with vegetable oil

Mix all the batter ingredients together in a large (and hopefully shallow) bowl

Now add the chicken and toss them around to get a nice, sticky coating of batter

Grab some tongs, and place the pieces of chicken into the panko

Roll 'em around to get thoroughly coated, then place them one by one onto the wire rack

Spray the chicken pieces with oil, or just dribble a bit of oil on each piece (like me), if you don't have any veg. spray

Sprinkle some salt over each, then bake for 15-20 minutes depending on the size of your tenders (mine took 20 - they must have been big chooks)

On goes the parsley, and serve with the dip/sauce/relish of your choice

We ate some the next day, tho' the panko had gone a bit limp.  They lasted another day or so in the fridge, but I suggest eating them all up immediately :=) 

Notes:

Nagi advises to spray the panko with oil before baking, but I didn't!  I actually only used about 60 grams of the panko, and that was plenty

I'd planned to use my homemade wholegrain mustard, but we'd run out, so I used a heaped tsp of harissa instead.  "Use more next time!", says Mr P.  

Chop up some chicken breast if you can't get tenderloins

golden, toasted panko

about to batter :=)

chuck in the chicken

battered and into the panko

onto the tray for baking (oops, forgot to leave the baking paper underneath)

ready for eating

sprinkle with parsley

dollop on Kewpie mayo and tabasco sauce, or sweet chilli sauce

Sherry M.