‘The Pioneer Woman’: Ree Drummond Uses a ‘Crazy Special Ingredient’ for Her Crunchy Chicken Fingers Recipe That’s a Total Game Changer
Ree Drummond is a fan of shortcuts in her recipes and she found that one unexpected ingredient was just the trick for crunchy chicken fingers. The Pioneer Woman star shared her easy recipe, calling the addition of a sugary cereal a “hilarious” ingredient.
Ree Drummond uses sweet crispy cereal in her easy crunchy chicken fingers recipe
Drummond wrote about her Cap’n Crunch chicken strips recipe in a 2016 blog post on The Pioneer Woman website. “Weirdness makes the world go round! And that is most certainly true with these crispy, slightly sweet chicken strips, which are a version of the famous chicken that originated at Planet Hollywood restaurants years ago,” she wrote. “The minute I heard about their chicken strips way back when, I was intrigued. I’ve been a fan of sugared cereal all my life. Don’t tell my children.”
The Pioneer Woman star continued, “The breading for the chicken is — get ready — Cap’n Crunch, and even though it’s sweet as all get-out, once you incorporate the chicken and add some salt to balance things, the result is a super delicious coating that both crisps and slightly caramelizes (because of the sugar) as it fries. A sprinkling of salt after frying makes everything perfect, and a side of ketchup is absolutely required.”
Drummond makes a ‘breading assembly line’ and adds a fun sauce
Drummond demonstrated how to make her crunchy cereal chicken fingers during an episode of The Pioneer Woman. She shared her “breading assembly line” for easy dipping: flour, salt, and pepper in one dish, a whisked egg in another shallow dish, and a third dish with the crunchy breading component.
“Now, for the crazy special ingredient, I’ve got sugary crispy crunchy cereal here,” she explained. She put it in a plastic bag, sealed it, and used her hand to crush the cereal into crumbs.
Drummond explained the inspiration behind her recipe, noting, “I once had chicken breaded in this cereal at a restaurant years and years ago. It is the most hilarious breading for chicken, but I tell you what, it is so good.” Once it was “mostly broken up,” she placed the cereal in another shallow dish.
“And now it’s time to bread this crazy chicken,” Drummond said, explaining how she had cut a chicken breast into strips “so they were nice and thin.” Then The Pioneer Woman star moved down her assembly line — first dredging the chicken in the flour, then dipping the pieces in the egg, and finally pressing the moistened chicken into the crushed cereal crumbs until it was “completely coated.”
She finished breading all of the chicken pieces, then dropped them in an iron skillet with vegetable oil set over medium heat. “It’ll probably take me two batches to get all of these fried,” she explained. “What I love about these chicken tenders is the color — it’s so gorgeous.”
Drummond cooked the chicken for 2 to 3 minutes per side. When finished cooking, Drummond made “a really fun dipping sauce” with ketchup, applesauce, and 2 dashes of Worcestershire sauce. “The applesauce gives the ketchup just a little bit of sweetness, a little hint of an apple flavor.”
The Food Network host’s blog post recommends putting the chicken on a paper towel to drain. “You’ll want to flip them over on the paper towel after a minute or two to let the other side drain out any excess oil,” she wrote. “And give them a generous sprinkling of salt at this point! That sweet-salty thing is super tasty.”
