Chicken Planks ( Kinda like Chicken Fingers, ONLY BETTER)
I think my husband married me because of these chicken planks, seriously. They are a hit with kids, teenagers, and grown ups alike so I thought I’d bring it to you today since our Southern Plate family has grown so much since I first posted it. This was back in the day of my little point and shoot camera so I took a new final photo last week to put in here but the other photos are the original ones. Have a great day and I you get to make these soon! Gratefully, Christy
Click here to get my recipe for Comeback Sauce to serve with these!
This was one of my mom’s weekly dishes growing up. They are so good! Our friends would hear we were having chicken planks and conspicuously hang around our house until Mama called us in for supper so they could secure an invite.
After all, aren’t Southerners known for their fried chicken?
The taste and texture of this dish are so amazing, you’d never know the ingredients were so few and so simple.
We were eating these in our family long before chicken fingers made it onto the menu at restaurants and before chicken nuggets were even thought of (Happy Meals were hamburger or cheeseburger back in “the day”). I remember we went to a restaurant once and my dad actually asked the waitress what a chicken finger was. He said “I didn’t know chickens had fingers!”. We were all very young and thought our dad was hilarious.
Give these a try, I guarantee they will knock your socks off and blow other chicken fingers out of the water!
Please don’t get low salt or no salt crackers, just trust me on this.
Place chicken breasts inside two ziplock bags and beat out thin with the blunt end of a meat tenderizer or mallet. I use two ziplock bags because one usually ends up splitting open in the course of my beating. I guess I have a lot of untapped aggression 
.
They will be nice and flat and thin, about 1/4 of an inch. I wonder if I can use that measurement one more time in this tutorial…keep your eyes open, I am setting it up as a personal challenge.
I swear I sing Michael Jackson in my head every time I beat eggs.
“Gunky” is a highly technical culinary term which I learned whilst acquiring my $40,000 degree in home economics. You may not have used that term until now because you were not properly educated on its meaning. However, as a reader of Southern Plate, you are now qualified to incorporate it into your daily vocabulary. Your friends will be impressed, so you must make chicken planks A.S.A.P. in order to have your first opportunity to utilize this colorful term. Can you tell I’m tired?
Okay, so your cracker crumbs will start to get gunky after you use them a bit, this is where you will take the crumbs you had set aside and dump them into your bowl. Just put them right on top of your old crumbs if you like, then continue breading your chicken and putting it in the oil.
If enough of us do it, I bet they’ll start using it on the Food Network!
Turn after they brown on one side and continue cooking
Remove from the pan and place on paper towel lined plate.
Ingredients
- Chicken Breasts
- 1 -3 Sleeves Saltine Crackers
- 2 eggs
- Cooking Oil
Instructions
- Pour oil in large skillet to a depth of 1/4 inch. Heat on medium while you prepare the chicken.
- Place chicken in gallon ziplock bag and beat out until 1/4 inch thick. Crack eggs into bowl and beat with fork. Crush saltines and put in a separate bowl.
- Cut each chicken breast into three strips and dip each piece first in egg mixture, then in cracker crumbs, being careful to coat completely. Drop each piece into oil and cook, turning once, on medium to medium high heat until browned on both sides. Drain on paper towel lined plate.
Posted by Christy Jordan
on Aug 11 2008. Filed under Chicken, Main Course.
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Christy,
Thank you so much for sharing this fabulous recipie for5 chicken planks, I have made this everyweek since I have gotten this from you.
Every week it gets better and better.
Love these chicken planks so much!!!!!
I didn’t see a category for this but….what kind of camera do you use now?
Looks soooo good Christy can’t wait to try them!!!!!
These are so great…but…use the same receipe for pork chops sometime! My families favorite. I love to make some milk gravy with the drippings to go with the meal. Mashed potatoes…or buscuits. When I have all the chops cooking I dump the left over crackers into the left over eggs and make my own “gunkys”, just spoon into the oil just for me.
Hi Christy-just wanted you to know I make something very similar to your recipe (and will try yours because it looks so good!) What I do is use crushed potato chips (plain or sour cream and onion) and add a little parmesan cheese to it. I make a dipping sauce of honey and dijon mustard or barbeque sauce works well too. Love your website here in Arkansas! Stop by Mena sometime- would love to meet you!
Thanks for this recipe , it really was the best I eve made, and I have tried a lot! It will be the only way I make them from now on. I used Krogers Wheat saltines and fried them in grape seed oil even my son loved them and when I told him I was making them with saltines he wasn’t happy, but when he tried them .he said I should always make them like this . I WILL NEVER MAKE THEM ANY OTHER WAY !! I served them with honey mustard sauce. Your mother knew what she was doing , must have been a great cook . Thanks again for the great recipe !!
I am so glad to hear they were a hit Linda, Mama was a fabulous cook!!
I found your website this morning and I am so glad i did! hehe i already have drop biscuits in the oven! Now i cant decide whether to make these or the cracker barrel chicken tenders tonight! And ive already asked my hubby for your cookbook for christmas=) It is all stuff like my MeMe used to cook!!! Thank you so much!
Welcome to SouthernPlate Jerrica!! I am so glad you found me too. I hope you enjoy the recipes while cooking and making memories for your family!
These are so easy to make and they are wonderful! I love the crunch on the outside and the soft juicy chicken on the inside. I had wanted to make these for a while but I never remembered to pick up saltines. I finally bought some the other day after I saw your recipe to make homemade butter. My daughter made it so I had to have that yummy butter on some saltines. Thank you Christy!
Yummy! I am so glad you enjoyed the chicken planks and the butter!!
Made these for the first time, for lunch for my kids – I asked if they liked the chicken – said I had read good reviews of the recipe – and my 10-year-old son said “well you can stick up another good review ’cause they are AWESOME!”
Happy New Year to you and yours!
[...] Chicken Planks [...]
I use this same coating and cooking method with venison cubed steak. It is delicious.
Anyone ever tried baking these?
These were so good and so easy. I don’t own a meat pounding thing, so I used a frying pan:/ Well, it did something, but not what it should. So I cut the three strips in half since they were so thick. They did not make it to dinner. As I began cooking them while my daughter whipped up the sauce. We ate them as soon as one got cooked (we broke it in half and shared it while we waited for the next one!!) Then she wanted fries, which go great with the sauce as well!! So i sliced a potato and dropped it in after the chicken was done. We literally ate as we stood at the stove, what a shame. Two of my favorite foods–crackers and chicken, absolutely wonderful.
[...] is the original Southern Plate’s Chicken Planks recipe. If you click the link, you may have noticed it calls for egg in the dipping batter. [...]
These are wonderful especially with the Comeback Sauce!