Fried Chicken Strips

Who does not love fried chicken?  This is my own recipe that I came up with after playing around with the spices in my cabinet.  It is still simple and easy and only uses spices that most people commonly keep in their pantries.

I made this for my family when they came to visit.  I seriously fed seven people off of 2 chicken breast... Five adults and two children.  We even had some left over, enough for another person.   That really helps when you are on a budget and needing to feed a crowd!

Fried Chicken Strips
Ingredients
2 chicken breast, cut in strips
1 cup self rising flour
1 1/2 Tablespoons salt
1 Tablespoon garlic
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon pepper
1 cup buttermilk

Directions

1. Sprinkle 1/2 Tablespoon of salt over the chicken.
2. Place in a container and cover with buttermilk at least 30 minutes before cooking.
3. Mix the flour and spices together.
4. Take the chicken strips and let the excess buttermilk drip off.  
5. Place in four and coat well.
6. Fry in oil that is preheated to 350 degrees.

Notes
You can either deep fry or pan fry these.  The picture shows pan fried chicken strips.  I put one inch of oil in my frying pan and flip the chicken half way through cooking.

You can also cut the chicken up smaller and make chicken nuggets.  I do this for my daughter who likes bite sized meat chunks more than the strips.

Want a quick meal in the future?  Freeze them!  If you want to freeze chicken fingers for later use, just partially cook the chicken in the oil.  Once they have cooled, place in a freezer bag.  To cook frozen chicken,  preheat your oven to 400 degrees and cook fingers 8-10 minutes on each side.  You can do this straight from the freezer without thawing.

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Is homemade worth it?

2 chicken breast = $1.00
1 cup self rising flour = $.10
1 1/2 Tablespoons salt = $.03
1 Tablespoon garlic = $.09
1 teaspoon onion powder = $.02
1 teaspoon pepper = $.01
1 cup buttermilk = $.25

So, one recipe of chicken strips costs $1.50 to make.  If you buy chicken by the pound, this could be $3.00 a pound.

Where we live, we can buy frozen chicken fingers for $1.40 a pound, already breaded and ready to cook at a discount/overstock store.  They do not taste as good as the homemade ones, but they are a lot cheaper. 

If you buy Tyson or another frozen brand at the grocery store, you will pay $6.99 for 1 1/2 pounds of chicken.  So one pound of Tyson chicken fingers costs $4.66.  It is cheaper to make homemade than to buy these.

Summery
Tyson chicken fingers = $4.66/lb
Homemade chicken fingers = $3.00/lb
Discount chicken fingers = $1.40/lb

Taste wise, however, I like the homemade ones much better than the frozen ones.