Chicken tenders don't need breading to be great
Chicken tenders won Eater.com editor Helen Rosner a James Beard award recently. They are a secret favorite of professional chefs, who fry them in great batches for their restaurant family meals.
And in this recipe, Jacques Pépin allows the strips of white meat to star, with a bit of char and a crisp-crunchy condiment.
As Rosner's piece in Guernica magazine pointed out, you can tell the difference between a natural chicken tender and a similarly sized cut of chicken breast by its shape, which is flattish, oblong and tapered. However, we disagree with her assertion that “a chicken tender lives or dies by its exterior.” Pépin's chicken tenders don't need a breaded coating to make them fly.
Serve with warm flatbread.
Bonnie S. Benwick is a Washington Post writer.
Grilled Chicken Tenders With Chimichurri
Adapted from “Heart and Soul in the Kitchen,” by Jacques Pépin (Rux Martin/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2015)
16 chicken tenderloins (not breaded; a scant 1 1⁄2 pounds total)
1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1⁄3 cup plus 1 tablespoon olive oil
3 or 4 green onions
2 cloves garlic
4 or 5 red radishes
Leaves from 2 or 3 stems cilantro
1 lime
1 teaspoon dried oregano, preferably Mexican
1⁄2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
Toss the chicken tenders in a mixing bowl with 1⁄2 teaspoon of the salt and a tablespoon of the oil.
Place a heat-proof ceramic serving platter in the oven; heat to 140 degrees. (If your oven goes only as low as 170, make sure your platter can handle the heat.) Heat a large grill pan over medium-high heat.
Working in batches as needed, add the chicken tenders to the skillet and cook for about 1 1⁄2 minutes or until char marks form, then turn them over and cook for about a minute on the second side. Transfer to the platter to keep the chicken warm.
As you prep the following ingredients, transfer them to a medium bowl: Discard the root ends of the green onions, then finely chop what's left (to taste). Mince the garlic. Cut the radishes (to taste) into thin rounds, then cut the rounds into half-moons or into very thin slices (julienne). Coarsely chop the cilantro (to taste). Cut the lime in half and squeeze to yield 2 tablespoons of juice.
Add the dried oregano, red pepper flakes, the remaining 1⁄2 teaspoon of salt and the remaining 1⁄3 cup of oil to the bowl; stir to form the chimichurri sauce.
Remove the platter from the oven; spoon the sauce over the chicken. Serve warm.
Makes 4 servings.
Nutrition per serving: 390 calories, 26 grams fat (4 grams saturated), 115 milligrams cholesterol, 36 grams protein, 2 grams carbohydrates, dietary fiber, 360 milligrams sodium
