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Nashville Hot Chicken Strips

Course Main Dish
Cuisine American
Prep Time 1 hour 25 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 55 minutes
Servings 4 servings
Author Sizzling Mess

Ingredients

For the Chicken

  • 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
  • 2 cups buttermilk
  • 2 tablespoons vinegar-based hot sauce (I like Franks Red Hot)
  • 2 eggs beaten
  • 3/4 cup gluten free flour blend WITHOUT xanthin gum See notes
  • 3/4 cup cornstarch
  • 3 tsp kosher salt I used Morton's
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • Canola oil for frying

For the Sauce

  • 2 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 tsp paprika
  • 2 tsp chili powder
  • 2 tsp mustard powder
  • 3 tbsp brown sugar
  • 4 tbsp cayenne pepper
  • 1/2 cup canola oil leftover from frying

Instructions

  1. Start by slicing your chicken breasts into thin strips. You should be cutting them on the diagonal, and get 4-5 strips per breast.
  2. Put your chicken strips into a bowl with the buttermilk and hot sauce, and let marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour, up to 8 hours.
  3. Combine all of the spices for the sauce in a heatproof container and set aside. Do not add oil, because you will add frying oil later on.
  4. Once ready, set up your dredging station. Have your bowl of chicken, a bowl with your beaten eggs, and a large, flat plate and combine your GF flour, cornstarch, salt, and pepper.
  5. One at a time, pick up your chicken strips, letting the buttermilk drip off, dip them in the egg, and then into the flour mixture to coat. Keep going until all are coated. You may have some leftover flour, which you will want to keep next to you while cooking in case any of your chicken loses it's coating before frying. The coating will look more like a batter once the flour absorbs the egg. This is how it's supposed to look!
  6. To fry, heat about 2 inches of canola oil over medium-high heat in a heavy bottomed pot or a dutch oven. You may have to adjust the temperature up or down during cooking if things are not cooking fast enough or burning. You want your oil to be about 350 degrees F.
  7. Gently place chicken strips, one by one, into the hot oil and let them fry 2-3 minutes per side. Don't overcrowd your pot, do this in batches of 4 or 5 strips.
  8. Once the chicken strips are done (the crust will be golden brown, and an instant read thermometer should read 165 in the thickest part of the chicken strip and the juices should run clear when cut), remove them to a paper towel-lined cooling rack.
  9. Continue steps 7 and 8 until all chicken strips are cooked.
  10. Next make your sauce. Take your combined spices are CAREFULLY spoon your hot frying oil into them, whisking after each spoonful. It will take about half a cup, and you want it to be the consistency of a thin paste - brushable, but not watery. The oil you use for this needs to be warm, or it will taste off, that's why you use frying oil.
  11. Brush your sauce onto the chicken strips and serve with pickle chips and a slice of GF white bread underneath to soak up the sauce, if desired.

Recipe Notes

I like to use Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour for this application (NOT Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 Baking Flour), but any GF flour blend with no xanthin gum should work.

Not Gluten Free? You can substitute 1.5 cups all purpose flour for the GF flour blend and the cornstarch in this recipe.

It's a good idea to use fresh cayenne pepper for this recipe because it relies so heavily on the flavor of it and old spices = less flavor.