And we’re kickin’ Monday off with a crispy chicken salad! Here’s the salad I shared with you guys on Instagram last week and promised that it was coming very soon. What I love about this salad is that it defies the general norms of what we think of when we think salad. You know, greens, low-calorie toppings, grilled chicken, shrimp or fish. Ours is a whole different beast. It starts with homemade breaded chicken tenders. Load a bed of romaine up with sliced avocados, a few sun-ripened cherry tomatoes, and a few shavings of red onions for a kick. Then comes the fun part. A generous (maybe a little too generous sometimes) drizzle of my homemade sriracha honey bbq dressing. Just like that, you have a homemade crispy chicken salad that tastes better than anything you’d get at a fast-food restaurant. It’s a real salad, for real people who are feeling really burnt out on salads. You feelin’ my drift here?
Lunches and dinners seem to get boring around here sometimes. We keep things light around lunchtime with a salad of some sort, but when you make the conscious decision to have salads for lunch 365 days out of the year, they seem to feel pretty monotonous, day in and day out. So to liven things up a little bit, I decided we needed a crispy chicken salad topped with sriracha honey bbq dressing. And guess what? It did the trick. This salad is not only so satisfying from all those crispy chicken chunks, but it’s also loaded with the most addicting dressing! A little iceberg lettuce for crunch. A handful of sliced almonds. Anees asks for the sriracha honey bbq dressing to be made on the regular. I wholeheartedly concur. We both could put it on just about everything! It’s seriously the perfect balance of spice, sweet, and smoky bbq goodness.
Let’s make the Sriracha Honey Mustard Dressing for our Crispy Chicken Salad:
The sriracha honey mustard dressing plays a two-part roll. First, it flavors the chicken tenders as they hang out in the buttermilk. And second, we’ll use the remaining sauce as the dressing on our salad. To make the dressing, grab your favorite bbq sauce, honey, sriracha, mustard, mayonnaise, and apple cider vinegar. Then just combine it all in a bowl with a whisk, no need to get the blender out or anything! Have you ever used mayonnaise to marinate meat or poultry? If not, you’re in for a big surprise! It’s something that I picked up from my mom, and it’s the most essential ingredient in her homemade Persian chicken kebabs. The mayo tenderizes the chicken to the point where it just melts in your mouth. Holy deliciousness! Since then, I’ve been using it in my grilled chicken marinade and the tenders for today’s crispy chicken salad. My sriracha honey mustard dressing is just like the sauce you get at Chick Fil A; only you can make it anytime you want, including Sundays! 🙂
Putting the ‘crispy’ in crispy chicken salad
There are a few different ways to make sure that your chicken is super crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Here are some tips for success:
Don’t fry chicken cold from the fridge: If you’re marinating the chicken for a quick 30 minutes, this won’t be a problem, but if you’re letting it hang out in the refrigerator overnight, make sure you’re not frying the chicken straight from the refrigerator. You’ll want it to hang out at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before dredging it and frying Use a cast iron skillet: my cast iron skillet is one of my favorite kitchen workhorses. A thick skillet will retain the heat and fry the chicken more evenly, so you don’t need a deep fryer for this recipe. In fact, I almost encourage you not to ever get one! Use a meat thermometer: When you’re frying the chicken tenders, make sure they reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees. Investing in a digital meat thermometer will take the guesswork out of it! Just insert the thermometer into the thickest part of the chicken (making sure only to go ½ way through) and let the thermometer read it for you. The chicken tenders will take anywhere from 5-9 minutes to cook all the way through depending on the thickness. Don’t use an oil that has a low smoke point: olive oil is not your friend when you’re frying chicken tenders. Instead, use peanut oil, canola, corn or vegetable oil for best results.
Why I love homemade crispy chicken salad:
You need a crispy chicken salad in your life this week 🙂
I suspect that you could possibly cook these tenders in an air fryer but I haven’t tried it so I can’t say with certainty! If you give it a try, would love to know how it went for you! Haven’t tried baking the chicken tenders so, unfortunately, not sure at all how that would go!
