Nashville Hot Chicken Tenders: the Best Party Food?
It’s time for a big game, right? At time of writing it is. But even if it’s not when you’re reading this and you’re having friends over for a meal, a party, or a fun dinner with a movie, maybe you should cook up some homemade chicken tenders. And maybe, just maybe, you should make them in the style of Nashville hot chicken. In fact, if your friends like spice at all, you definitely should! In this post, we’ll go over chicken tender temps and tips, and review the amazing sauce used for Nashville-style hot chicken in which you should douse them. Let’s get snacky…and spicy!
Get the tools for this cook here:
Q: Are they chicken tenders or chicken strips?
A: It doesn’t really matter! yes, they are most often called chicken tenders, but they needn’t be. I’ll explain. The chicken tender is a particular muscle that hides beneath the chicken breast, next to the rib cage. That meat is (get this!) tender. (Well, except for that little sinew that hangs off the one end of it that you’ll need trim off or have to chew on later.) But the meat is, in essence, breast meat.
In fact, you could just as easily use chicken breasts cut up into strips that are roughly the same size as tenders. (That is what we have done for the chicken that appears in the pictures with this blog post.) The form factor will not be identical, but the meat and the thermal principles remain the same. To be “technically correct” 1, we should not refer to these crispy fried juicy, tender pieces of chicken as “chicken tenders,” though both those words truthfully apply. Rather, we ought most likely to call them “chicken strips.” But as the preponderance of web-search traffic in this arena favors chicken tenders over strips, we will continue with that nomenclature.
So, chicken tenders it is—whether technically correct or not.
Chicken tender temperatures
Whether you source true tenders or use breast strips instead, the thermal principles remain the same. You must cook them in oil that is the correct temperature to the correct internal temperature. Those are the same for strips and for tenders.
Oil temps for chicken tenders
Fry your chicken tenders in 365°F (185°C) oil. By doing so, you’ll give the breading the time it needs to brown up and crisp in the short time it takes the chicken itself to cook through. The crispness of your tenders depends on the quality of that crust, so use your ChefAlarm to monitor and adjust your oil temperatures. Don’t trust your tenders to the “sizzling crumb” test! (It’s always best to use a high-heat old for deep frying. Corn and peanut oils are as good as they get!)
Chicken tender doneness temp
White-meat chicken overcooks easily, drying out quickly as it passes 160°F (71°C). If you want juicy tenders, don’t cook them too far past that! We’ve written pretty extensively on the time/temperature kill-off rates for salmonella in chicken, but suffice it to say here that lean chicken meat that reaches 158°F (70°C) and maintains that temp for 22.3 seconds has the same bacterial death as meat cooked to 165°F (74°C). Use your Thermapen ONE to check the temp of each tender as they brown up, looking for a lowest temperature of 158°F (70°C).
On Nashville hot-chicken sauce
We’ve written on this before, too, but we’re always happy to do it again. It’s a mix of cayenne, chili powder, spices, cayenne, brown sugar, paprika, and cayenne, all heated and toasted with oil from the fryer. You can adjust the cayenne levels, subbing tablespoon for tablespoon with paprika, if you can’t handle the heat.
Though we love this spice and heat from this sauce, we find that it can be a bit flat tasting on its own. Give your tenders a sprinkle of flaky salt after dressing them, or drizzle them with a little honey. A squeeze of fresh lime juice over a plate of them would also be fantastic!
We’re pretty happy to “Nashville-hot” almost anything, but chicken tenders are especially good for it. So for your next sports-watching party, why not make a big old bowl of these for your friends? Keep your oil temps on target with ChefAlarm and get your chicken temps right with Thermapen ONE and you’re sure to have a fiery snack that will get you big points as a host. Happy cooking!
Nashville Hot Chicken Tenders Recipe
Ingredients
For the chicken and marinade
- 12 chicken tenders 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, each sliced into about 3 strips
- 1 ½ C buttermilk
- 1 Tbsp cornstarch
- 1 ½ tsp sugar
- 2 Tbsp Frank’s Red Hot or other hot sauce
- ½ tsp ground black pepper
For the breading:
- ¾ C panko breadcrumbs
- ¾ C regular breadcrumbs
- ¾ C all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ Tbsp onion powder
- 2 tsp granulated garlic
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
For the Nashville sauce
- 6 Tbsp cayenne pepper
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp paprika
Instructions
Prepare and marinate the chicken
- Mix the ingredients for the marinade in a bowl by whisking together.
- Add the chicken to the marinade, mix to coat all the meat, and allow to marinate for 20–40 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make the breading by combining all the breading ingredients in a wide bowl or shallow dish. In a separate heat-proof bowl, mix the ingredients for the Nashville hot sauce.
- Also meanwhile, start preheating the oil in a large, heavy pot. Set up your ChefAlarm probe using the pot clip and set the high-temp alarm for 365°F (185°C) and the low-temp alarm for 345°C (174°C).
Cook the chicken
- Bread the strips one at a time by taking them from the marinade, dripping off the excess, and placing them in the bowl with the breading. Turn and cover them with the breading and set aside.
- Once the strips are breaded and the oil is hot, start cooking. Place 3–5 strips in the oil at a time and cook, watching the oil temperature and adjusting the heat accordingly, for about 3–5 minutes.
- As they start to brown, check their internal temperature with your Thermapen ONE, looking for a lowest temperature no lower than 158°F (70°C).
- As the strips finish cooking, remove them to a paper towel-lined cooking sheet to drain.
- Cook the next batch, allowing the oil temperature to recoup before adding more strips. Repeat until all the tenders are cooked.
- Take 1 C of the hot oil from the fryer and whisk it (carefully!) into the bowl of Nashville hot ingredients.
- Brush the sauce onto the strips or dip them into the sauce, mixing before each strip to get all those spices mised up in the oil.
- Serve! Have cold drinks on hand.
the best kind of correct?↩