By Kevin Williams
Chicken is extremely popular in Amish kitchens. The meat is flavorful and plentiful and on Amish farms the chicken has a different taste. Chickens running around a barnyard pecks and forages at whatever they can find and that adds flavor to the meat, as opposed to the blanding effect that factory farming imposes.
These are thawed tenders read to get the Amish treatment!
Amish cooks, especially those with kids at home, are always looking for fun, flavorful ways to fix chicken that is quick.
I’ve written before about how pop culture has found its way onto Amish menus, such as breakfast burritos and Pizza Hut-style breadsticks, etc. Well, chicken tenders and nuggets are a staple of many fast food supper and lunch menus so leave it to the Amish to come up with a homemade version.
Coat chicken in the oil on each side.
A few tips from the Michigan State University extension department about how to safely thaw frozen chicken:
- Thawing chicken in the refrigerator requires planning ahead. Boneless chicken breasts, chicken parts and whole chicken may take one to two days to thaw.
- Thawing chicken in cold water is done by placing chicken in an airtight, leak-proof bag. Submerge whole chicken or cut-up parts in cold water and change the water every 30 minutes. Cook chicken immediately after thawing.
You get a beautiful breading for your tenders.
Chicken that is thawed in the microwave needs to be cooked immediately. The microwave method begins to warm or cook chicken that can lead to bacteria growth.
My parents made this recipe last night using some pre-cooked frozen chicken breasts from the local Kroger, so you don’t have to even worry about thawing them out. You’d probably get a better tasting chicken from your neighborhood butcher, but these did work fine. The `rents said you can just buy whole chicken breasts and split them in half to make the “tenders.”
Making the sauce, my parents said they ended up with twice as much as they needed, so you could cut your amounts there..
Comin’ out of the oven!
And on to the plate!
Okay, so how do you get a taste of this amazingly, easy, flavorful chicken supper? The recipe is below. And, geez, I have to give my parents kudos on portion control. That plate above looks like it is not very filled, if that were me it’d be piled with tenders and veggies and maybe something else like bread and butter (that’s a holdover of my Italian grandma, bread and butter with every meal). By the way, my parents cut back the honey in the sauce to 1 /3 from 1 /2, and used Italian bread crumbs, but you could use Panko or any kind of crumbs you might have on hand.
Now, if it were me, I’d be tempted to skip the honey mustard sauce and use barbecue sauce, here are some Amish recipes:
Anyway, here is the recipe!
- 6 Amish chicken cutlets
- 1 cup Italian bread crumbs
- 2 Tbl fresh grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- ¼ cup canola oil
- Honey Mustard Sauce
- 2 Tbl cornstarch
- 1 cup water, divided
- salt and pepper
- ½ cup honey
- ¼ cup prepared mustard
- Preheat oven to 350° F. In a plastic bag, mix bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese; set aside. In a small bowl, combine garlic and oil.
- Cut chicken into 1-inch wide strips. Dip strips in oil; coat with crumb mixture. Place on a non-stick baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes or until golden brown.
- For honey mustard sauce, dissolve cornstarch in 1 tablespoon water in a saucepan. Add honey, mustard and remaining water; bring to a boil over medium heat.
- Boil for 1 minute stirring constantly. Serve on side for dipping
