We ate chicken tonight -- I like the chicken tenders at the Cracker Barrel restaurants, so I Googled up a recipe for it. There are many out there, and they are all remarkably similar. I had 1.25 pounds of chicken tenders, so I used 1/3 cup of Italian
dressing, a tablespoon of good lime juice (I only get the good stuff, just in case the
occasion arises to make Key Lime Pie. Better to be prepared.) The recipes all called for a little bit of honey, though I suspect any sweetener would work, or even none at all. I don't keep it on hand here, but I had a single serving size from a dinner we had somewhere last week where
JB had
biscuits. Stir those three ingredients together in a small bowl.
Dump the chicken tenders in a zip lock bag and add the marinade. Squish it around some, then put it in the bottom drawer of your refrigerator for 2 to 24 hours. I put this together at lunch, so it was about 5 or 6 hours. Longer wouldn't have hurt, I'm pretty sure.
These take next to no time to cook. I put a little olive oil on my grill pan, and turned the heat to about medium high, just a little bit lower, until the oil got good and hot.
I set my stove timer for 3 minutes per side, and they were done. I cut a couple of the bigger ones in half, just to be sure -- raw chicken is icky. Overcooked chicken is tough. These were very moist but thoroughly cooked. I used a light honey
dijon mustard salad dressing as a dipping sauce at the table.
I love my grill pan -- I use it a lot for quick suppers. Turkey burgers, for example. We have plenty of tenders left over, probably enough for at least two lunches of chicken sandwiches. (Chicken tenders are overpriced -- you can buy chicken breasts and cut them up with your kitchen shears for the same result. I wanted the convenience, so paid the extra this time. I also suspect that boneless chicken thighs would work with this, for those of you who like dark meat. They might take a little bit longer to cook.)
Dump the chicken tenders in a zip lock bag and add the marinade. Squish it around some, then put it in the bottom drawer of your refrigerator for 2 to 24 hours. I put this together at lunch, so it was about 5 or 6 hours. Longer wouldn't have hurt, I'm pretty sure.
These take next to no time to cook. I put a little olive oil on my grill pan, and turned the heat to about medium high, just a little bit lower, until the oil got good and hot.
I set my stove timer for 3 minutes per side, and they were done. I cut a couple of the bigger ones in half, just to be sure -- raw chicken is icky. Overcooked chicken is tough. These were very moist but thoroughly cooked. I used a light honey dijon mustard salad dressing as a dipping sauce at the table.
I love my grill pan -- I use it a lot for quick suppers. Turkey burgers, for example. We have plenty of tenders left over, probably enough for at least two lunches of chicken sandwiches. (Chicken tenders are overpriced -- you can buy chicken breasts and cut them up with your kitchen shears for the same result. I wanted the convenience, so paid the extra this time. I also suspect that boneless chicken thighs would work with this, for those of you who like dark meat. They might take a little bit longer to cook.)
