Chicken Tenders

Sugar-free | Gluten-free | Dairy-free | Air fryer recipe

Serves 1

Why it's delicious

We all love crumbed fried chicken but sadly it's one of the worst fried foods we can possibly eat. Well normally... and this isn't your normal crumbed chicken recipe! Firstly, we're using lean chicken breast, crumbed in a healthy herb crust and then air fried till tender. It comes out crisp, juicy and oh so moreish. 

Helpful hints + tips

I used an air fryer to make my chicken tenders so crisp, golden and moist. You can make these in the oven, but they wont come out quite as crisp as mine, but will still be tasty. 

There are a fair few dried herbs and spices in the crumb mixture but DONT PANIC if you don't have them all, just add in the ones you have and make your own special bespoke crumb. 

Ingredients

• 100-200 g (3.5 -7 oz) chicken breast, sliced into fingers
• 35 g (1.2 oz)  table salt dissolved in 2 cups of water

Healthy crumb mixture 

• 1 thick rice cake, broken into small pieces
• 2 tbsp psyllium husks
• ¼ tsp garlic powder
• ¼   tsp Himalayan salt
• ⅓ tsp ground black pepper
• ¼ tsp dried basil
• ¼ tsp dried thyme
• ¼ tsp oregano
• ¼ tsp paprika
• ⅓ tsp ginger

Method

1. For best results soak the chicken breast in the salt and water brine for at least 8 hours to help give the chicken flavour and moisture when it's cooked. If you are pressed for time, soak the chicken for a minimum of 1 hour before cooking. 
2. Add all the ingredients for the crumb mixture into a small high speed blender or a coffee/spice grinder and blend until fine. 
3. Lay the crumb mixture on a flat plate and drain the brine from the chicken. Press the chicken fingers though the crumb mixture ensuring the as much of the crumb as possible sticks to the chicken. 
4. Preheat your air fryer on 200c (390f) for 5 minutes and lay the crumbed chicken in a single layer on the base of the air fryer basket and cook for 10 minutes. 
5. If you are using your oven, preheat the oven to 200c (390f) and place the chicken tenders in a single layer on a baking paper lined baking sheet and cook for 10-15 minutes until cooked through. 
6. Your tenders are now ready to eat with your favourite accompaniment.