Enabling the Addiction

There is a raging problem with addiction that I have become aware of around here... 1 in every 3 people will really enjoy suffer with this addiction.* Look around at the other two people dining with you tonight, if neither of them has ordered Southern Fried Chicken Crispers with Sweet Mustard Dipping Sauce then it's probably what you are ordering, isn't it?**  Some are so ashamed of their addiction they seek help, and in seeking help they have come to me.  The thing is, I don't exactly go for the Dr Phil method... I'm more of an enabler.  So now, as part of my service to the community I am going to enable so many more of you to feed your addiction and get your fix of Crispers.  Better still, you can do it in private, at home where no one can judge you anymore***

Here it is folks, passed down through the secret Association of Crisper Enablers (ACE) the recipe for Cactus Jacks Southern Fried Chicken Crispers with Sweet Mustard Dipping Sauce.

 For the sauce you need

• 300ml Pure Cream
• 1 tablespoon Australian Mustard
• 1/4 cup Apricot Jam

Do use the pure cream, a little extra time beating it and you get to miss out on all those icky things that they add to it to keep the thickened stuff thick on the shelf.

For the crispers you will need

• Cornflake Crumbs
• 3 eggs
• 500g Chicken Tenderloins

You may need an extra egg, it depends on the size of them and how much sticks to the chicken.  I used 3 on this day.  You can also use chicken breast cut into even sized strips, thigh wont work as well because it's hard to cut it all even thickness.  Also, for more manageable sized pieces you may want to cut each tenderloin in half.

Prepare the sauce first so you can have it ready to go when your crispers are hot and freshly fried.

I used all the mustard I had left (about a dessert spoon) which wasn't enough so my sauce was a little too sweet... and I think my jam is sweeter than I usually use too, the measurements will depend on the different brands but what I have given up the top is a good starting point. (don't you love my babushka measuring cup set my sweet boy got me... they make me happy)

Beat your cream until is is just starting to thicken.  Add in the jam and mustard and continue beating until it is thick and globby (technical cooking term that means it falls off the spoon in blobs rather than running off the spoon).  You can see in the picture below that it doesn't immediately flow back and settle when you stop beating.  Be careful... it is easy to get carried away releasing all your pent up frustrations on the cream but no one wants to eat Southern Fried Chicken Crispers with Sweet Mustard Dipping Butter... or maybe.... hmmm.  If that becomes a raging success then you heard it here first.  Cactus Jacks, you can send me a big fat cheque for thinking that one up for you.

Cover that and place in the fridge until you are ready to serve.

Set yourself up like this... 

L-R Dinner plate with bake paper on it, large shallow bowl with breadcrumbs, small bowl with beaten eggs, tray of chicken.

Start by dipping each tenderloin into the beaten egg and then wiping off the excess drippy bits.  If you leave it dripping you will end up with all the crumb coating falling off.

Any extra dangly bits of chicken like this you can pull off and keep aside for later (they are very important).

 Next, toss it in the breadcrumbs, try to make sure it is thoroughly coated, it doesn't have to be a thick coating just as long as it's all coated.

Place each piece on the bake paper on the plate, try not to let them touch because they will pull the crumbs off each other if they do touch.

After your first layer is full, put another sheet of bake paper on top and keep crumbing.  When you get to all those little bits that you pulled off, crumb them too.

Once you have done one layer of crumbs on all the chicken slide the bottom layer of bake paper onto the bench and put the plate back at the end and do a second layer of crumbs. You need to work quite quickly at this point, if you leave them in the egg too long the first layer will start to fall off.  You can still very gently wipe off the excess egg mixture before placing them into the crumbs.  Because you made sure the first layer coated them really well you don't need to be as fussy this time, you can work faster knowing that all the chicken will be coated.

Make sure all the little pieces that you had are on the top when you have all your chicken crumbed!

Heat a small pan and pour in enough oil to cover the bottom.. I am sure you can do these in a deep fryer but I don't have one so I shallow fry.  I only use a small pan because I have trouble keeping track of what I'm doing if I have too many on the go.  Now, get your oil to the right temp, remember they should sizzle as soon as you put them in, that is what those little ones are for... checking if it's hot enough.  Then you eat them while you cook the rest.****  It's also good to remember that if the oil is too cool it will soak into the chicken and you'll get oily icky chicken instead of crispy yummy chicken.

Fry both sides until cooked through and golden on the outside and transfer them to some paper towel to soak the extra oil.  I then put them on a cooling rack placed over an oven tray so I could put them in the oven to keep warm while I kept cooking more.

 They should look lovely and crispy and golden when they are done.  You may need to eat a few more at this point to make sure they really are cooked well and taste good enough to serve to people you love.  We don't want to give dodgy food to people we love, do we?

Serve them with a big glob of Sweet Mustard Dipping Sauce and enjoy.

The kids gobbled them down the last time I made them but this time they weren't so keen... they did try and eat all of the little bits I fried up though and were calling it "pop-corn chicken but better than KFC"... but that may have just been so that I would let them have more than a mouse sized nibble each.  I think next time I might do a heap that I cut into small bits for them... and some for me too.

So there you have it, Southern Fried Chicken Crispers with Sweet Mustard Dipping Sauce... now go, feed that addiction... and make some for me while you're at it!

Oh, and if you don't happen to eat it all at once then you aren't really trying hard enough we found that the chicken was delicious cut up over a spinach salad and the sauce used as a dressing (with wholegrain mustard added the second night to get rid of some of the sweetness.

*all statistics totally made up.

**only if you are dining at Cactus Jacks.  If you aren't dining there then you probably wish you were because you want your crispers!

***lets face it, no one was judging, but at least if you are at home by yourself no one can steal your crispers!

**** This is essential to the cooking process.  If you don't eat all those little bits while you are cooking then your crispers wont work out*****

*****This may or may not be an outright lie... it's your risk to take.