Buttermilk “Battered” Baked Chicken Strips

Marinated in spiced buttermilk, these baked chicken strips pack a flavor punch, while still remaining healthy! Baked to perfection, they are perfectly crisp! Who needs calorie-dense fried chicken, when you can make these baked chicken strips that are equally flavorful and crispy? These Buttermilk “Battered” Baked Chicken Strips are coated with breadcrumbs, panko, and parmesan, ensuring that you will never miss traditional fried chicken strips ever again!

Perfect for Children and Adults Alike

There is something about chicken strips that excites both children and adults alike. I mean who doesn’t like fried chicken that requires absolutely no work to eat. As a child, chicken fingers or chicken tenders were my “go-to” at any restaurant, I knew I would always be satisfied at the end! Still to this day, if I cannot find anything on a menu that appeals to me, I will order my trusty-friend chicken fingers, and almost always come out feeling satisfied.

Baked Chicken Strips: Healthy and Delicious

Now, while chicken fingers are the perfect combination of savory and crunchy, and work as an excellent vessel to dump any form of tasty-tasty sauce into your mouth, lets face it – they are not by any means the healthiest choice. Cue the worlds smallest violin, while I cry about how good BUT BAD fried food is. But really, wouldn’t life be so great if we could eat fried food ALL THE TIME.

But alas, these are all hopes and dreams, but what is neither hopes nor dreams, is how truly delicious these healthy chicken fingers are! Who knew marinating, lightly breading, and baking little strips of chicken, could create a dish that is equally as delicious and crunchy as our childhood favorite? And what’s even better – absolutely no guilt. The buttermilk marinade makes these both flavorful and tender, while the panko bread and breadcrumbs give these an excellent crunch. These are an awesome high protein snack or meal, good for both children and adults alike!

Tips and Tricks for Perfect Baked Chicken Strips

Here are a few important tips and tricks about making these, to ensure absolute delectability and maximum crunch:

• When cutting the chicken into strips to put into the marinade, cut the strips against the grain (the way the muscle fibres align) of the chicken. The reason for this is it will make the meat less chewy and more tender. This is because we are essentially cutting the muscle fibres into short little pieces – shorter fibres = less work chewing to break fibres up = less chewy. You can find the grain by looking for little lines in the chicken, which will all be going in the same direction. You will then cut perpendicular to these lines.

• The marinating in this recipe is very important. The buttermilk not only tenderizes the meat, as the calcium is quite efficient at breaking down the enzymes in the meat, but the buttermilk, along with the added spices, really impart a lot of flavour and moisture into the chicken. When I first made baked chicken fingers, years and years ago, it was made by simple cutting up fresh chicken into strips, dipping into milk, dipping into eggs, and then coating with breadcrumbs. While at the time I thought it was alright, it wasn’t until I began marinating in buttermilk that this whole dish changed for me. Not only was I craving it myself, but my family was also asking for it all the time as well. I have found the optimal time for marinating is for about 12 hours. I will typically cut these up the night before, and throw them into the marinade, and make them the next evening. You can marinate for as low as 6 hours and up to 24 hours.

• For the best results, use a wire rack to cook these. I just place a metal cooling rack on top of a baking sheet. Why this is important is because it will circulate the heat better, resulting in a crunchier coating. I have made these before just placed onto a baking sheet and the tops were perfectly crispy, but the bottoms turned out quite soggy and moist.

• The reason for dipping these in an egg batter is because the egg batter acts as an adhesive for the chicken and the breadcrumbs. Without the egg batter, the breadcrumbs tend to fall off very easily – even when cooked. The reason I use cake flour, rather than all purpose is due to the protein content in cake flour. Cake flour has less protein (gluten) than A/P flour. Gluten in flour tends to create a chewier denser texture, so therefore a low-gluten flour will be lighter, making for a light and crunchy coating. Just as an aside, I also will add a small amount of the same seasonings used in the marinade into the egg batter. This is just to increase the flavor, but is totally optional!

• The parmesan in this should be quite fine, and mixed well with the breadcrumbs, I have found that using large grates of parmesan resulted in the parmesan burning and turning hard. The ultrafine grated parmesan tends to blend in seamlessly with the breadcrumbs, adding flavor rather than texture.

• You will be left with quite a bit of breadcrumb mixture leftover at the end. The reason I call for so much is just to ensure that the coating is equally as crispy on each strip. As you did the buttermilk and egg coated chicken into the breadcrumb mixture, it slowly overtime begins to dampen the mixture. I have found that by using a smaller amount of the breadcrumbs results in the last few pieces have soggy coating, that is why I prefer to use a lot of breadcrumbs, so that every piece gets fresh, dry, and crispy breadcrumbs. You will be left with about half of the crumb mixture leftover at the end. If you do not want to waste breadcrumbs, feel free to use less, but the results will not be as good.

• This step is 100% optional, and is really more about visual aesthetic than about taste. As written, these baked chicken strips will come out being a very light beige in color – essentially the same color the breadcrumbs were before cooking. Now there is 2 ways to darken the coating. The first is to simply spray the assembled strips with an oil-based cooking spray. The oil in the spray will cause the breadcrumbs to turn slightly golden. The end result of this will be a light golden color. The second way, which require more work but is far superior in the color it delivers, is by placing the breadcrumbs (without the parmesan) onto a baking pan, spraying with an oil-based cooking spray, and baking in the oven for 3 minutes at 400°F, removing and mixing the breadcrumbs around, and placing back into the oven for another 3 minutes. The breadcrumbs will be a beautiful golden color, reminiscent of real fried chicken batter. Then simply allow the breadcrumbs to cool (about 5-10 minutes), and add in the spices and parmesan, and begin the assemble your strips.