Recipes and Review: Wayne's Country Style Boneless Chicken Tenders Dinner

Country Style Boneless Chicken Tenders, Potatoes with milk gravy, Oven-fried Eggplant, Sliced Homegrown Tomatoes from Judy's Garden and Marshall's Old Fashioned Buttermilk Biscuits

This is one of my favorite meals I have cooked in a long time. I think because it's just good ole comfort food! The chicken tenders were the best we've ever cooked. Who knows why, but we've never thought to use a mallet on our chicken tenders before. I'll never not do it again! They were tender and cooked evenly!! The potatoes with gravy were yummy! I tend to put so much cheese and sour cream and other things in potatoes that you can't taste the potatoes!! These simply prepared potatoes were the perfect balance with the fried chicken! Judy had brought me a mess of okra, an eggplant and some tomatoes earlier this week. Aunt Jean cooked the okra on Thursday, and I cooked the eggplant tonight. Larry and I really like this recipe! I also sliced up some of the tomatoes and sprinkled them with a bit of sea salt. Yum! Here are the recipes!! Thanks again, Wayne, Barbara and Felecia!! God bless y'all for your kindness and hospitality!!

Country Style Boneless Chicken Tenders

This is perhaps my favorite year round dinner, and it’s surprisingly quick to prepare. ~ Wayne

1 pkg. Fresh Boneless Chicken Tenders (about 10 pieces)
1 pkg. Pillsbury Frozen Mini-Biscuits (McCoy’s Grocery)
3-4 medium sized Potatoes - Irish or Idaho
Frozen vegetable – Chick peas or baby limas
Garden Salad (optional if green vegetable is chosen)

Easily feeds four.

Use a mallet to flatten chicken tenders, dip in buttermilk (no egg), dredge in S.R. Flour, add salt and pepper to taste. Deep fry in peanut oil or country fry on stovetop. Fry at 375° to 400° until golden brown. Serve while warm.

Peel, dice and boil potatoes until tender, add 1 Tbs butter (real kind), season to taste, and serve once liquid begins to thicken. Potatoes can be mashed if desired.

Serve with one of the vegetable suggestions above, potatoes, garden salad, and hot biscuits.

Prep to finish – thirty minutes or less.

Note: If country fried, make milk gravy to serve on chicken or biscuits.

Notes from Connie:

To make milk gravy, stir a bit of flour into the pan drippings from where you fried the chicken. Stir this paste until desired brownness is reached. Slowly stir in milk to desired thinness is reached. Serve over potatoes, biscuits, chicken, and whatever else you like. Down here, we think gravy can go on just about anything!

I didn't make it up to McCoy's to get the mini Pillsbury biscuits Wayne recommended. Both The Pig and Wal-mart were out of the Mary B tea biscuits I usually get. I decided to try a package of Marshall's Old Fashioned Buttermilk Biscuits. I'll share a bit in the product review below!

Oven-fried Eggplant

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Slice a large eggplant into ½-inch rounds.

Put in a bowl and salt lightly.

Combine 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup of mayonnaise.

Dip the eggplant slices in this mixture and roll in bread crumbs.

Place eggplant on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray.

Bake for 12 minutes.

Turn eggplant over; and bake an additional 12 minutes or until golden.

I am going to try making using the recipe to make Eggplant Parmesan. For the bread crumb coating, I will use Italian-style bread crumbs or just add a bit of Italian seasonings to plain bread crumbs. I will also toss in about a 1/3 - 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese. After baking as directed, I'll top it with warm pizza sauce and sprinkle with a bit of shredded Italian cheese blend.