‘The Pioneer Woman’: Ree Drummond Says Her Honey Pecan Chicken Strips Are ‘Just a Dream’ Meal
Ree Drummond has the perfect kid-friendly meal that’s easy and delicious. The Pioneer Woman star makes an easy breading for her fried chicken strips and tops them with a honey butter mixture.
Ree Drummond gives chicken strips a tasty upgrade
Drummond demonstrated how to make her honey pecan chicken strips during an episode of The Pioneer Woman dedicated to teenager-friendly food.
“I’m always trying to kind of crack the code when it comes to food that makes my teenagers tick,” she explained. “Let’s face it, I love teenager food. I mean, what is teenager food, anyway? It’s cheesy, drippy … it’s stuff you might order in like a chain restaurant, basically.”
Drummond noted that chicken strips are always a hit. “Everybody loves chicken strips,” she said. “Well, these are honey pecan chicken strips. The breading has a little bit of a pecan vibe.”
She added, “And then, after I fry them, I’m gonna put some honey butter on top. And these are gonna kind of put regular chicken strips to shame.”
‘The Pioneer Woman’ makes delicious fried chicken
Drummond used chicken tenders for the recipe and made them more tender by soaking them in buttermilk. She added hot sauce to the buttermilk and let the chicken sit in the mixture for 10 minutes. “And that is gonna be the hardest part of this whole recipe,” she said.
In another bowl, Drummond stirred together the breading ingredients: flour, seasoned salt, and pecans.
“You basically want to chop them until there are certainly no chunks left,” she said of the pecans. “But you want it to almost be a fine powder because that will make the chicken strips have more of a pecan flavor.”
Drummond heated a skillet with oil while she breaded the chicken. She took the chicken pieces, shook off the excess buttermilk, and placed them in the breading. The Pioneer Woman star rolled the chicken in the mixture and pressed the pecans onto the surface, then shook off the excess and placed the chicken on a plate.
After coating all the pieces, she carefully placed half of them in the hot oil. “You want the oil to be at about 360, 365 [degrees] just so the chicken has a chance to get really brown, but you don’t want to burn the pecans,” Drummond said. “So this is definitely a ‘babysit your chicken strips’ situation.”
She added, “So I’m just gonna babysit these until they’re brown and then I’ll take them out onto a paper towel-lined plate.” Once fried, she cooked the second batch of chicken.
‘The Pioneer Woman’ tops it with an easy honey butter sauce
Drummond melted butter in a skillet with honey to create a delicious topping for the chicken.
She placed the cooked chicken on a platter and spooned the honey butter over the top then put the leftover sauce in a bowl for dipping. Drummond sprinkled parsley over the chicken for garnish.
“It’s got this amazing flavor of pecans and a little touch of honey butter. It’s just a dream,” the Food Network host said. “A teenager’s dream and a teenager’s mom’s dream.”
The full recipe is available on the Food Network website.
