Gluten Free Chicken Fingers

It used to be a pretty safe bet that I would order chicken fingers in a restaurant. With BBQ sauce. Why look at a menu? You know I'm going to order it.

I'm not a fancy person. Gimme a burger, pizza, fries and I'm happy. Pub platters... I'm in heaven. Or I was.

It was a long time before I had chicken fingers again. There is some effort involved but as you'll see, I am set up for months after I make these chicken fingers.


Chicken Fingers

• Boneless chicken breasts
• Buttermilk
• Seasoned flour mix *see below - Flour is just a general GF mixture. 2 parts brown rice flour, 2/3 part potato starch, 1/3 part tapioca starch
• Oil for frying

Seasoned flour mix

• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/4 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

This was for 2 cups of flour. If you want it spicier, add a little more.
 
Slice each chicken breast into however many pieces that you would like. Chicken tenders, popcorn chicken, chicken cutlets etc. 
Pour enough buttermilk into a bowl to cover the chicken, reserving a small amount (about 1/4 cup) of buttermilk.
Drizzle reserved buttermilk in the seasoned flour and stir lightly so that you see little clumps of flour start to ball up. Just a few are good.
Dredge the chicken breast pieces in the seasoned flour mix.
Let them rest for a few minutes in the mix while the oil preheats to about 375F. 




Time to deep fry some fingers!

When I make them, I prepare them for freezing. I love convenience food. It fits my schedule.
After letting them rest in the flour mix, I put them in the deep fryer at  for about 15 seconds, just long enough for the flour to set and slightly crisp up. Drained them and onto the parchment paper they went and then into the freezer overnight.Then they were bagged and kept in the freezer until needed.

I do small batches so that I can get them into the freezer as soon as I pull them out.

Of course, should you wish to deep fry them all the way, go for it and they probably take about 5-7 minutes until golden brown.

When you're ready to bake them, they'll need about 20 minutes at 350F to bake through.Convection is best or on a rack so the heat will circulate around them.  I use my NuWave oven ( Flavorwave oven)  which is a small convection oven and it takes them about 17 minutes.

 Or..... toss in a homemade buffalo wing sauce. Equal parts butter and hot pepper sauce such as Frank's Red Hot for a medium heat.

Serve with plum or BBQ sauce. Sweet Baby Rays is my choice for a spicy sauce.

Anytime I want chicken fingers, I have them now. I can also prep these as chicken cutlets for chicken parmigiana or breaded chicken burgers etc. I usually wait until chicken is on sale and then slice up some chicken for stir-fries as well. I'll buy a few packages and then prep up all kinds of breaded cuts and just increase the flour and seasoning as need.

 Frozen GF chicken fingers are definitely the way to go for me.