I love Chick-Fil-A but it, of course, is not Keto friendly. My husband and I discovered long ago that the secret to making their chicken at home is to soak it in pickle juice overnight. Luckily we love us some pickles and so we have no problem coming up with the pickle juice.
We do have a deep fryer (we own THIS one) and use it all the time. If you do not have a deep fryer and live the low carb/keto lifestyle I highly recommend one. You can certainly make these in a deep pot with oil but the fryer is my favorite method for many reasons.
We enjoy these with Ranch dressing but feel free to use your favorite low carb dipping sauce.
Pickle Brined Crispy Chicken Tenders
2 pounds chicken tenders, fresh or at least defrosted
2 cups pickle juice
2 cups crushed pork rinds (crush, then measure)* (we used Misson)
¾ cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated**
2 large eggs whisked
Place the pickle juice and chicken tenders into a plastic bag. Double bag to avoid leaks (trust me on this).
Let the chicken tenders sit overnight (and then all day) in the fridge to have the flavors really soak in.
Remove from fridge when ready to cook.
If using a deep fryer then heat to 350F. If not heat a pot or deep skillet to 350F using enough oil to go about 2 inches up the side of the pot/skillet.
Mix together the crushed pork rinds and cheese and place in a large bowl. Some prefer to use a shallow plate; it’s really what you prefer.
Place the eggs in a bowl.
Dip the chicken tenders into the egg wash.
Immediately dredge them into the pork rind cheese mixture.
Drop the prepared chicken tenders into the oil.
Fry until they are golden brown and crispy (see photo). If using a fryer, this will be about 3 ½- 4 minutes total. If using a pot/skillet, it will be about 3 minutes on each side.
Remove from oil and place on a plate covered with paper towels. The paper towels will soak up the extra grease.
Serve with ranch or low carb condiment of your choice.
*Best way to crush the pork rinds is in a food processor using pulse.
**We find that freshly grated Parmesan holds the breading on the best.
Nutrition: I will do my best to give nutrition info. Please note that it will be as accurate as I can get BUT we do not count calories only carbs since we do this for health and not for weight loss. If you have huge concerns I suggest that you enter the recipe into something like My Fitness Pal recipe builder.
This one is hard to count for since you end up with pork rind breading left as well as the egg wash left. The chicken tenders we used ran about 1.5 oz each once cooked. We got 14 tenders. We each ate about 3 at a time. 3 cooked chicken tenders at 4.5 oz are 109 calories (and no carbs). The breading mixture we figured 2 TBSP Parmesan (40 calories 0 carbs), 1 oz pork rinds (80 calories and 0 carbs). The pickle juice is trace calories and trace carbs. So total about 230 calories per 3 tenders and no carbs.
The KE -TO My Health 