Sriracha Chicken Tenders

I know I'm not a real food blogger, but I always appreciate it when the real food bloggers post about recipe failures as well as successes. No one has success 100% of the time, and I think it's kind of discouraging to novice cooks to think that every single recipe turns out perfect every single time. The fact of the matter is, is that some recipes just don't work out for you. A flavor combination may be weird, a texture may be weird, whatever it is, it's not going to be perfect every time.

Last night I made srirachia chicken tenders. I found this recipe on Pinterest, and saw this one on Hungry Meets Healthy. Both were similar, but the Budget Bytes one said these were super spicy, and Hungry Meets Healthy says they weren't as spicy as she thought they would be. But since Christina literally carries around a bottle of srirachia in her purse, I thought maybe she was just used to the heat and I decided to try the recipe. I mean, the chicken is marinating in a 1/3 of a cup of srirachia... they should be plenty spicy, right?

They weren't. There was definitely heat to them, you couldn't taste it, but you could feel it, if that makes any sense. But the lack of spice was disappointing since, but more than that these didn't have a lot of flavor period. If nothing else, more salt would have helped these immensely. I put a "pinch" of salt & pepper in my flour and it obviously wasn't enough. We tasted one before we sat down to eat and realized instantly they weren't what we expected, so we got creative to give these more flavor. Graham mixed up a dipping sauce for himself with mayo (gag) and srirachia: I just put several dots of srirachia on my chicken tenders. It was a vast improvement, and I really enjoyed them, I just hate they didn't have enough flavor on their own.

I'll probably make these again, just play around with the seasonings anymore. Even though these were baked & not fried, they were so crispy and the chicken was incredibly tender.

Served alongside a simple salad and Alexa potato wedges.

Sriracha Baked Chicken Tenders
(Adapted from recipes found here & here.)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. of chicken tenders
• 1 inch of ginger; peeled & grated
• 1 clove of garlic; minced
• 1 tsp. of rice wine vinegar
• 1/3 C. of srirachia
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 C. of flour
• 1.5 C. of Panko (Japanese style breadcrumbs)
• Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Combine srirachia, vinegar, ginger, garlic & salt in a small bowl. Put the chicken tenders in a Ziploc bag, pour the marinade in the bag and make sure the chicken is well coated in it. Roll the bag up, getting as much air out as possible. Seal the bag and refrigerate for at least an hour.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
3. Set up three bowls for the dredging. Put the flour in one (with salt & pepper), the egg in one, and the panko in one. Cover a baking sheet in foil and set aside.
4. When the chicken has marinated, take each tender, shake off the excess sauce and start dredging. First the flour, then the egg & then the panko. Place each coated tender on the baking sheet (this gets messy... I kept water running in the sink so that I could keep rinsing off my hands without touching anything).
5. Bake for 20 minutes. Once finished, turn the broiler on low and broil each side for a few minutes (about 3-4 minutes on each side) until it's nice & golden and crispy.