Pioneer Woman's Crispy Chicken Strips

I know chicken strips are traditionally a kid's favorite food, but seriously, these crispy chicken strips are adult food too.  The chicken is soaked in buttermilk, giving way to tender moist meat, and then coated in a seasoned flour mixture that has been drizzled with buttermilk.  The buttermilk in the flour is KEY to those crispy bits of coating y'all love (don't you love it when I get all Southern?).  Some people like their chicken strips with honey mustard or ketchup, but since we are going grown up style here let's eat them with a buttermilk ranch dressing (recipe found here).  This recipe is courtesy of our favorite Pioneer Woman, who knows comfort food best.

Crispy Chicken Strips
recipe from Pioneer Woman

Ingredients:
1 pound boneless chicken tenders (or chicken beasts cut into strips)
buttermilk
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 to 3 teaspoons Lawry's seasoning salt
salt,pepper
canola or vegetable oil, for frying

Directions:
Season your chicken tenders with some salt and pepper.

Place the chicken tenders in large ziplock bag, and pour a cup or more of buttermilk over the chicken.  Seal the bag and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
When you are ready to cook your chicken heat a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat.  Pour enough canola or vegetable oil in the pan to come up the side about 1 inch.  You aren't going to deep fry but you need enough oil to cook the chicken.

Place your flour in a bowl or shallow pan, and add your seasoning salt.  You can also add a pinch of cayenne pepper or any other seasonings you want.    Stir together with a fork and then slowly drizzle in about 1/3 cup of buttermilk to the flour.

You want some of the flour to crumble together, making little balls of coating that will stick to your chicken and be all delicious when fried.  I went slightly overboard with the buttermilk here because I just had to take a picture at the same time.  Do you know how hard that is to do?  Take a picture of yourself pouring something while balance both the camera and the bottle at the same time?  So anyways, this is a little TOO crumbly for me, but it works.  You can't go wrong really.

Take your chicken strips and

place in the flour mixture.

Coat the chicken well with the flour mixture, and lightly shake off any excess flour.

Make sure your oil is hot and ready (you can place the end of a wooden spoon in the pan and if the oil makes small bubbles around it, it is ready). Place the chicken in the hot pan and cook on each side for 4-5 minutes, until lightly browned and crispy and the chicken is cooked through.

Drain on paper towels or brown paper bags.  Lightly salt.

Serve it while it's hot with this tasty buttermilk ranch dressing.

Now this is comfort food for both kids AND adults.
Enjoy!