Chicken Fingers with Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce and Sweet Potato Fries

Last night's dinner was chicken fingers with honey mustard dipping sauce with a side of sweet potato fries. All 3 items were first timers and according to the Mister, this meal was out of the ballpark! Oh yeah, I noticed something yesterday while I was making dinner. Apparently I can't operate a camera while I'm cooking. Is that like walking and chewing bubble gum at the same time? So you guessed it, no pictures again, sorry.

I made the fingers similar to that of my fried chicken recipe, except I did a double dip. I wanted to see if double dipping (actually, double dipping and dredging) would create a nicer crust. It turned out really good. I might add more spices next time since I think an extra kick would go really well with the honey mustard sauce.

Since I had the electric wok all set up for frying, I decided to finally use the sweet potatoes I had lying around. Gave me a chance to use my Bron-Coucke mandoline. The fries turned out thinner than I had wanted but it still fried up nice on a test fry. The fries were really good, even cold. They didn't crisp up as much as I would have liked but maybe an extra minute or two would have done the trick. Tasty nonetheless (the Mister was going to town on them).

The following recipe for the chicken fingers estimates 1 chicken breast per person. If you're feeding big appetites, make about 1.5 chicken breasts per person. The prep areas were similar to other fry foods. The "raw" area consists of 1 bowl of flour and 1 bowl of buttermilk (for the second dipping). I didn't use a raw resting area since I added the strips directly after the second dredging. The "cooked" area was a resting area (draining rack over a baking sheet) for the cooked fingers.

Ingredients:
3 boneless chicken breasts, each breast cut into 4 equal strips
4 cups (1 quart) buttermilk
4 cups all purpose flour
Vegetable shortening for frying (you can use Canola oil)

Chicken Seasoning ingredients:
2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons Hungarian paprika
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Place chicken strips into a plastic container and cover with 2 cups of buttermilk. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oil to 350 degrees. Use enough oil to come up at least half way up on the chicken strips.

Drain chicken strips in a colander. Combine Chicken Seasoning ingredients. Liberally cover the chicken strips with seasoning. Dredge strips in flour and shake off excess. Dip strips into buttermilk and then back into flour. Shake off excess flour.

Carefully place a few strips into heated oil. Don't overcrowd the pan or fryer. Fry chicken strips for about 3 minutes on each side, until golden brown. Serve with honey mustard for dipping (see below).

CAB's Honey Mustard Sauce ingredients:
2 Tbsp mayonnaise (I recommend Best Foods)
4 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp yellow prepared mustard
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp Horseradish
Pinch of salt and pepper

Whisk ingredients together. Let stand for at least 15 minutes. Can be refrigerated but let it come to room temperature before serving.

Sweet Potato Fries:
I par-fried the sweet potato fries first, then fried them again after the chicken fingers were done.

Cut the sweet potatoes into about long 1/4" strips. Cover the SP strips with water until all the SP are cut. Drain and then rinse the SP strips under cold running water until water runs clean (this is to remove excess starch). Thoroughly pat dry the strips.

Heat up oil to 325 degrees F. Add fries, about handful at a time, to the hot oil. Fry and stir occasionally until potatoes are soft and limp. It will turn a blond color, about 3 to 6 minutes, depending on the thickness. Use a spider to carefully remove fries from the oil and set aside to a drain area (mine is a draining rack over a baking sheet). Rest for 10 minutes or up to 2 hours.

At this point, I made the chicken fingers since I wanted the fries to be hot.

When ready to serve the sweet potato fries, reheat the oil to 350 degrees F. Transfer the par-fried sweet potatoes into the hot oil a handful at a time. Fry again, stirring frequently, until golden brown, about 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer back to drain area. Sprinkle salt or other seasoning at this time. Serve immediately.

Yes, it was a lot of fried foods but dang, this was good. I certainly wouldn't make this all the time (moderation is the key, right?) but I'll definitely have to make this again soon.

Postscript: I recently did a double fry on the chicken fingers when my timing was off. You can read about it here.