Ok, I’ll admit that I’ve lived in a form of denial for years — about fried food… I’ve refused, across the board, to deep fat fry ANYthing in my kitchen, yet I will eat the french fries and fried chickens and fried okra at a meat and 3… if I don’t see or perform the procedure, I can more easily ignore the health and fat gram factors… hmmm, wonder how fried ostrich would be…

But yesterday I mistakenly bought chicken tenders instead of breasts… had 3 hungry friends visiting and thought, what the heck, I’ll try frying these birds.

So, I got 3 bowls out. Mixed about a cup of AP flour in one and added a tsp hot madras curry powder, 1 tsp ground cumin, 1/2 tsp cayenne, 1/2 tsp paprika and salt and pepper to taste. Then I whisked 3 eggs into the second. In the third I put about 2 cups of crushed chipotle flavored tortilla chips (processed in the Cuisinart).

Rinsed the tenders, patted them dry with a paper towel and dredged them in each of the bowls — flour then egg then chips.

Then I put about a cup of peanut oil in a 2″ deep skillet, got it sizzling (you can tell it’s ready when a drop of water sizzles on contact) and began the frying… Chancy, my co-writer and videographer came in and said, “Gal, you ain’t doing it right — you need at least twice that much oil to fry chicken tenders!” So I summoned my faith in his culinary knowledge… he hasn’t been wrong about anything yet… handed him the bottle of peanut oil and left him to it. Again the happy ostrich, lalalalala! Plus I needed to dress for the writers’ round we were going to at the Bluebird and the Pat McLaughlin band later at Douglas Corner… fabulous, but that’s a different blog…

The tenders were great!!! Chancy was right again! If you try it, I suggest putting them on a salad of mixed greens and the veggies of your choice with a honey mustard dressing. We just wolfed them down with barbecue sauce and went to the Bird, fat and happy.

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Kitchen by Suzi