It’s All About A Good Recipe

I had some Yum Yum sauce in my fridge from some grilled bang bang chicken I recently made so I thought what can I make using that? It's actually cold here this week in Texas so I didn't want to grill chicken outside.

Here is the recipe for the grilled version https://itsallaboutagoodrecipe.blogspot.com/2024/11/bang-bang-chicken.html

I also was taking food to some dear friends whose son is in the hospital, he was burned on 80% of his body just a couple of weeks ago. What a journey, if you are like me you have had a loved one in the hospital and the ups and downs can be very hard. I like to take people food in general and have found that food can actually help that support system at the hospital because so often you are just snacking, real food sure helps and food gives you strength.

I saw a recipe for chicken tenders using Yum Yum sauce and decided to make them.

One thing I have learned is to cut my own chicken tenders myself. When you buy precut chicken tenders there is that stringy tendon attached sometimes can be rubbery or tough. Also you will see in the the picture below how many tenders I get out of 2 good size chicken breast. I fed 6 people including myself then had leftovers.

Do you happen to have the App, called Flipp? It is pretty great! What it does is tells you who has what on sale for that week so often I search Chicken Breast and it pulls up who has it on sale. You can type in pretty much anything even for places like Home Depot, Academy or? They actually have the ad on the app of each store, pretty amazing! It has been my go to for a few years now because I don't always have the paper ad in my car.

Tom Thumb often has Chicken Breast for $1.99 lb and occasionally, $1.77 lb. So I will get 10 lbs, the limit and divide into bags and freeze it.

Since I'm talking about Apps, Gas Buddy is also pretty great because it tells you the price of gas at all the stations right around you. I mainly get gas at Costco and Sam's but it comes in handy if I'm not near one or want to see how much gas is at one of those places like Sam's.

With this recipe you make a batter then dip the chicken in that batter and place it in the panko crumbs then the hot oil.

Oh and I left out the egg, I had it sitting right there but they still turned out great.

Bang Bang Chicken Tenders with Yum Yum Sauce

Bang Bang Chicken Tenders

Ingredients

2 chicken breast cut into tenders

1 egg

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/8 cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups Panko breadcrumbs, plain

1 tbsp sriracha

1 cup buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk add 1-2 tbsp of vinegar to regular milk and let it sit a minute it will curdle)

Oil - canola oil or vegetable oil

Directions

In a medium mixing bowl add buttermilk, flour, cornstarch, egg, sriracha, garlic powder, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. Whisk to combine add chicken tenders and toss to coat. '

Add Panko to a shallow plate.

Working one piece at a time, remove the chicken from the batter, gently shaking off any excess batter. Dredge the chicken into panko, pressing slightly to adhere. Set on a clean plate. Repeat with the remaining Chicken pieces. Set aside and heat the oil.

To a large skillet, add about an inch of oil. Heat oil over medium-high heat until it reaches about 365 degrees or I often sprinkle some flour in and if it starts bubbling it's ready.

Working in batches, add chicken and cook until browned about 2-3 minutes on each side, if needed add more oil but make sure it is hot again before adding more chicken.

Transfer the chicken to a paper towel-lined plate to absorb the oil left on chicken.

Toss the chicken in bang bang sauce, recipe below or have the sauce on the side. I was taking someone this meal so I put the sauce in a container for them to use as a dip or put on chicken when they heat it up.

Bang Bang Sauce

2 tbsp Honey

1 1/4 cups Mayonnaise

2 tsp Sriracha

2/3 cup Thai sweet chili sauce

1/2 tsp Black pepper

1 tsp Kosher salt

1 tsp Paprika

1 tsp Garlic powder

1 tbsp Olive oil, extra virgin

Mix everything together and store leftover sauce in the fridge. This will keep in the fridge for a month or longer the only thing that would go bad is the Mayonnaise so I look at the date for an expiration and go by that.

Here is what you need

Panko and Batter

I used 2 chicken breast and cut them into tenders

I was able to get a good amount of tenders

Here we go

dip chicken tender into batter than the panko crumbs

Place in oil, you can see i don't have a ton of oil in here.. maybe about an inch

Again if I wasn't taking this for them to reheat I would have added the yum yum sauce to the chicken

Pretty tasty

Yum Yum sauce I had in my fridge

Here in Texas it’s pretty cold this week! I realize many of you live in colder areas but it was 21 degrees last night and we have a chance of 12”of snow later this week!

So Chili was on the menu yesterday! My Mom for as long as I can remember used Williams Chili mix so of course that is what I use. I even use it anytime a recipe calls for chili powder because often regular chili powder is kinda bland to me. I just keep a packet of Williams for that to use in recipes.

Once Sam’s Club sold it in the big spice container and I often wish I bought more than 2 of them because they stopped selling it and Amazon wanted way too much for it. I actually just checked and you can get two 18 oz plastic containers for $20.40! I might have to order some before when I looked it was like $22 -$25 for 1.

Chili really only takes about 15 minutes to make. I personally like more tomato sauce in mine so I often add more than the recipe calls for. You can also add water instead of diced tomatoes or Rotel. I often add a little water anyway with the tomatoes…. About 1/2 cup.

You can of course add beans, I just happen to not like beans at all. I also seem to be a doubler so I did double this recipe.

Ingredients

1lb hamburger meat

1 4oz can do tomato sauce (I use 8 oz can)

1/2 cup water

1 can can diced tomatoes, I use one with tomatoes and green chilis

4 Tbsp Williams Chili Mix - 1 packet

1/2 cup water

1 cup kidney or pinto beans if desired

Directions

Brown and crumble 1lb ground beef in a stockpot or deep skillet drain the grease

Add tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and water then add the Williams Chili mix.

Let simmer for 10-15 minutes

Top with shredded cheese

I have 2 lbs of meat here, normally I wouldn’t buy the tubes of meat BUT H‑E‑B has the best meat and this is ground chuck which I have bought for years! It’s has true beef flavor and it’s my go too! I did add more tomato sauce because I do like mine that way but you can do as much as you’d like or go by the recipe.