Pretzel Crusted Chicken

I haven't shared a recipe in quite awhile, so I thought I should share my version of fried chicken. I don't actually make fried chicken on the bone because I'm not confident I could get the chicken cooked all the way through before it's burnt on the outside. Lord knows I am notorious for overcooking meat due to my fear of consuming raw, tainted meat. Instead, I've taken a recipe from Rachael Ray, tweaked it a little, and ended up with a version of fried chicken that the kids love.

What you need:
Chicken breast tenders or chicken breast cut in strips
Pretzels
eggs
spinach or broccoli puree (optional)

First, I put the chicken tenders in a heavy duty plastic baggie and flatten them by pounding them with a big can of stewed tomatoes. Hey, it works. Sprinkle them with some pepper and leave them sit while you prepare the breading.

Dump some of your favorite pretzels into a food processor and buzz them until they are a fine crumb. It's noisy and takes about a minute or so, but you don't want many big chunks in your breading. Add anything into your crumbs that you'd like: cayenne, thyme, pepper, oregano and parmesan cheese, whatever.

Of course, to bread anything you need to have something wet and sticky to hold the crumbs to the chicken. I use eggs beaten together with either spinach puree or broccoli puree. You can use just eggs if you want, but it never hurts to add in a little extra veggie that no one will ever notice.

Heat a large heavy duty saucepan over medium heat. I test the oil to see if it's hot enough by dropping in a little chunk of bread. Next comes the messy part. Dip each chicken finger in the pretzel crumbs, then in the eggs, then back in the crumbs. I set them on a big plate and dip them all before I start frying. Crumbs, egg, crumbs. Rinse and repeat til all the strips are breaded.

Fry each chicken strip until it's nice and brown flipping them over half way through cooking time. It doesn't take long because the chicken breast has been pounded thin.

It's really yummy and worth the grease smell that will linger in the house for a day or two.