I always have a large bag of frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts on hand, so I defrosted three in the microwave. Cut first in a butterfly to make the breast thinner to cook faster. Then for each half of the breast, I cut three diagonal pieces. So that means each full breast will make about 6 pieces.
The coating:
The last time I went to the market, I looked at the price of good old Chicken Shake And Bake coating, and it was not appealing, so I found the cheapest premade coating, and bought that. I believe it's called Louisiana brand and it's sold in a yellow bag. And then when I got it home, I discovered in my haste, I bought the spicy kind. Will be edible? I don't know. I've had Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich before and that was o.k.
The prep and cooking:
The cut chicken pieces were moistened in two beaten eggs and then dredged in the coating mix.
The first pass was created on a Tuesday night. The tenders were arranged on a cookie sheet lined with Reynold's non-stick foil and baked in the oven at 400 degrees for about a total of 45 minutes. At about the 30 minutes mark, they were checked for browning and, looking quite anemic, I decided to add canola oil and turn the cookie sheet. They were dry and just barely passing for food. We ate them anyway with corn.
The second pass was created on a Wednesday morning. A cookie sheet with a cooling rack was placed on top of the stove next to the cooking area. This time, I used a small steel frying pan to cook the tenders and filled it about 1/3 to 1/2 full of canola oil. I heated the oil until it was shimmering. And I cooked batches so that they were not touching in the frying pan. And this time, the whole situation was turned out much better. We had browned fried chicken tenders made at home that looked as good as they tasted.
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