Go to the Recipe: Ultra-Crispy Chicken Tenders
For buttermilk, there is a “see “Before we begin” note but there is nothing in the before we begin section referring to it.
How similar or different is Crisp Coat UC vs Trisol?
I have the later on hand for Kyl's awesome Extra-Crispy KFC-Style Fried Turkey recipe, but will go buy some Crisp Coat if there's a meaningful difference between them.
Good catch! Shouldn’t have been there. Fixed now.
Anybody has an idea of where to get Crisp Coat UC and Totole - Granulated Chicken Flavor Soup Base Mix in Canada (Québec)? I can find the later on amazon.ca but it is greatly overpriced at 45$ per can. Or equivalents?
I'm wondering about the benefits of crisp-coat UC vs. Trisol vs. Evercrisp? all available from Modernist Pantry? What about Batter-Bind-S ? In other recipes you've used Methocel to reduce fat absorption, would that be applicable here?
Can one formulate their own Crisp Coat by mixing corn starch with Tapioca Starch, maybe 1 part corn starch to 3 parts tapioca?
thoughts on battering and then freezing them, so can make in bulk, and fry later?
if you're in Montreal, Totole is available at T&T supermarket.
Great question Todd. I tried this and was very unhappy with the results, I was really hoping it would work for that same reason!
What I was finding was the dry dredge wouldn't ever fully hydrate and you were left with a chalky textured surface. But the more I thought about it after the more it made sense. This approach does work with larger cuts such as a thigh / breast / drum because of their extended fry times. During the longer fry time there is much more moisture pushed to the surface and the dredge is exposed to the layer of steam around the chicken in the fryer oil helping hydrate the dredge. Due to the very short fry times with tenders there just isn't enough steam produced to achieve the same result when frying from frozen.
I see a lot of great questions about substituting other starch blends for the Crisp Coat. We did good amount of comparing these during the early stages of development. I found Crisp Coat to be slightly more optimized for our needs mainly due to the shorter fry times with the chicken tenders.
Here is a breakdown to help compare their performance on a more granular level.
NOTE: Substitutes for the Crisp Coat UC that still produce great results are cornstarch, Evercrisp, and Trisol, 1:1 by weight.
Hey Jeffrey thanks for the great question. I posted an answer above but if you have any more questions please let me know!
I still have a bunch of EverCrisp left from making the Pecking house recipe. Happy to hear it works here, too!
Would love to see a ChefSteps recipe for coated french fries using Crisp Coat UC. It would be the perfect accompaniment to chicken tenders!
Love that idea! I've been wanting to also do Jo-Jo's for awhile too. I always loved getting them at gas station or grocery store hot bars on roadtrips.
Looks Amazing
Nicholas this recipe turned out great! Crispier than I was expecting, which, I mean, it says it in the title… but it was delicious. My kid loved them! (My wife and I did, too)
Hey Will, thank you so much for the feedback. So happy to hear your family enjoyed them!!!!
I use any chicken bouillon with MSG as it’s also quite expensive here in Arizona or just Amazon.
Anyone try this with bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces?
I was wondering, my mom breaks down a lot of chickens at a time and keeps a freezer full of boneless skinless chicken breast. As a result I get a big bag of chicken skins which I've been rendering the fat from and getting a nice jar of schmaltz. Could I somehow get those chicken skins broken down to a powder to add to the dredge?
