Low Carb Chicken Tenders

The world is a strange place. The latest kerfuffle in Singapore is that Malaysia is stopping exports of fresh chicken. Given that Malaysia supplies 1/3 of Singapore’s fresh chickens, this has been a seismic upset in the local food scene. After all, Singapore’s iconic dish is Hainanese chicken rice…you need fresh chicken to make the silky poached chicken so characteristic of good chicken rice. I was tempted to run to the wet market to buy a bunch of chickens before the export ban comes into being, but the freezer was full and so my kiasu (fear of losing out) instincts had to be suppressed. I do feel bad for the poultry sellers as many have said that they will close their stalls until the export ban is over. Strangely with this impending ban on chicken exports I had a sudden craving for fried chicken…

Anyway I think I’ve also been in a hoard cycle. There are times I’m a little busy and I haven’t been able to cook as much, but because I destress by online shopping or supermarketing, the freezer ends up really full of food. I looked inside the freezer yesterday and realized there was no space to add anything else. With the kids moved back home for their school break I thought we would clear the food faster but it turns out they spend most of their time out with friends and so they actually don’t eat at home that much. So much for stocking up. Anyway the one thing that the freezer usually has is frozen chicken breasts. This is because helper D always boils chicken treats for Lola the Cavoodle who has a way of finagling snacks with soulful eyes.

Today I decided to make crispy chicken tenders with pork rind crumbs. There are plenty of recipes for keto chicken tenders out there but this one is more Asian in flavor because of a soy marinade. Most Chinese chicken is marinated with a magical mix of soy sauce, Chinese wine and sesame oil. A Japanese version would probably use soy sauce, ginger and mirin. A non-low carb version would probably use panko bread crumbs but a great low carb substitute is pork rind crumbs. You can either crush pork rinds (think of taking a rolling pin to a bag of pork rinds) or buy them in the crumb form. I got my pork rind crumbs from iHerb which was pretty affordable especially as iHerb has free shipping.

Kid#2 and I were the ones enjoying these chicken tenders – we are both horrendously similar in our love for crispy. This was a winner recipe for us!

Low Carb Chicken Tenders

Servings: 4
Time: 1 hour
Difficulty: Easy
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Ingredients

500g chicken breast
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp chinese wine
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1 egg
1 cup of pork rind crumbs
3 cups oil

Dipping sauce

1 tbsp sriracha or low carb sweet chili sauce
2 tbsp mayonnaise

Directions

Cut the chicken breast into 2-3 cm pieces. Add the soy sauce, chinese wine, sesame oil, garlic powder and white pepper to the chicken pieces and mix well. Refrigerate for 20-30 minutes.
Beat 1 egg and place in a shallow bowl. Place the pork rinds into another shallow bowl:
Using chopsticks, dip the chicken pieces one by one into the egg, followed by the pork rinds, then place on a plate or tray, ready for frying.
Pour the oil into a wok and heat over a low-medium flame. Fry the chicken pieces in batches and place on kitchen towels to absorb the oil.
Mix the sriracha and mayonnaise together for the dipping sauce. Serve the chicken tenders hot.