Chicken Planks (Like Chicken Fingers, Only Better)
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Tender chicken coated in crispy Saltine crackers – this quick and easy chicken planks recipe is sure to become a new family favorite. It’s like chicken fingers, only better!
This chicken planks recipe 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. Yep, you only need 4 ingredients to make my chicken planks: chicken, oil, eggs, and Saltine crackers. We coat each chicken piece in the egg and Saltine crackers before frying them in the oil. It doesn’t take long for your plate of chicken planks to be ready to eat! I love serving them with my favorite dipping sauce, but you can serve them however you like.
Tender on the inside and crunchy on the outside, one bite and you’ll understand why these chicken planks are so popular! I think you will also be surprised at how much better they taste than any other chicken finger you’ve had. Let’s get fryin’!
Recipe Ingredients
- Saltine crackers (please don’t get low salt or no salt crackers, just trust me on this).
- Oil
- Eggs
- Chicken
How to Make Chicken Planks
Crush a sleeve of crackers and put half of them in the bowl, reserving the other half.
Pour about 1/4 inch of oil into the bottom of a skillet and let it heat up over medium heat.
While this is heating, place the 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.
Crack eggs into a bowl and beat them well.
Cut each chicken breast into three strips. Set up an assembly line of the three ingredients: chicken strips, eggs, and cracker crumbs.
Dip each strip into your egg mixture, on both sides.
Then press each side into the cracker mixture.
Here are our breaded chicken fingers, all ready to go.
Fair warning that after you do several pieces, your cracker crumbs will start to get gunky. That is when you add in your reserved crumbs.
Drop them into the hot oil. I cook mine on medium to medium-high heat. I like to use a heavy skillet for this, like my cast-iron skillet. Turn after they brown on one side and continue cooking.
Remove from the pan and place on a paper towel-lined plate.
These chicken planks are wonderful with any dipping sauce, or on their own.
Personally, I’m a ketchup gal. My husband likes honey mustard. Sara Jane (our bonus daughter) likes ranch, and Katy likes ’em plain.
I hope you make these soon, friends!
Storage
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. It’s best to reheat them in the oven or air fryer.
- You can also freeze leftovers for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before following the above reheating instructions.
Recipe Notes
- The best cooking oil is vegetable oil, canola oil, or peanut oil.
- Substitute the crackers for breadcrumbs if you prefer.
Recipe FAQs
What do you serve with chicken planks?
First, pick your dipping sauce and serve it as an appetizer. Here are some homemade sauce recipes you might like: Alabama white barbecue sauce, Comeback sauce, and chipotle ranch dressing.
Secondly, you can serve your fried chicken as a main dish with your favorite side dishes. This might include coleslaw, potato salad, mac and cheese, parmesan oven fries, pasta salad, or cornbread.
Finally, you may also like to serve them in a tortilla wrap with your preferred salad toppings, like cheese, avocado, and fresh tomato. Add your sauce of choice and you have an unbeatable lunch right there!
Check out these other quick and easy chicken dishes:
Grilled Chicken Tender Recipe (No Grill Needed)
Easy Ranch Fried Chicken Tenders
Baked Chicken Tenders With Zesty Seasoning
Southern Fried Chicken (Fuss-Free)
Ingredients
- 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 -3 sleeves Saltine crackers
- 2 eggs
- cooking oil
Instructions
- Pour the oil into a large skillet to a depth of 1/4-inch. Heat on medium while you prepare the chicken.cooking oil
- Place chicken in a gallon ziplock bag and beat out until 1/4-inch thick. Crack eggs into a bowl and beat with a fork. Crush saltines and put them in a separate bowl.2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, 1 -3 sleeves Saltine crackers, 2 eggs
- Cut each chicken breast into three strips and dip each piece first into the egg bowl, then in the cracker crumbs; being careful to coat completely. Drop each piece into oil and cook, turning once, on medium to medium-high heat until golden brown on both sides. Drain on a paper towel-lined plate.
Nutrition
removeI originally published this recipe in 2008 and updated the photos and this post in 2020.
This post is featured on Meal Plan Monday and Weekend Potluck.
Christy you are the bomb! We love chicken fingers and these are so easy I must give them a try. My question is will they taste as good if I cook them in light tasting olive oil or do I need to use vegetable oil? Didn’t know if that might be part of the flavor or if it really mattered.
Hey Kim!
I enjoy the taste of olive oil in cooking, personally. However, it has a pretty low smoke point so isn’t ideal for frying. Having said that, I think it would work but you’ll need to be careful and keep your temp on the lower side so you may end up with chicken that has absorbed more grease than you’d like. You might want to check out safflower oil. It’s great for pan frying and has a very neutral taste. I believe it is cheaper than olive oil as well.
This is how we have always made round steak. Pound it thin. Cut in small pieces. Then into the beaten eggs…..ours has some evaporated milk mixed in. Then into the cracker crumbs. It fries up really fast and is so good.
So good indeed!!!
These are by FAR the best chicken planks, tenders etc. I’ve ever eaten anywhere!!
Thank you so much Rene!!! That just made my day!
These look delicious…… I can’t wait to make them…..
I believe you might have been right the first time Sandy by saying me and my family instead of my family and I 🙂
The other day I used my daughter and I, and I was told they don’t say that anymore, it’s either me and my daughter or my daughter and me….. not sure…..but when I went to school it was my daughter and I….why all of a sudden has it changed???? I would like to know which one is correct …..if someone knows for sure, please let us know….. because I still like to say my daughter and I …..LOL…….
Not trying to correct Sandy 🙂 because I’m not sure just which one is correct….I just know it happened to me 🙂
Hi Sandy, not trying to correct you, but it happened to me the other day :)But I think it sounds better saying my Family and I …….:)
Hey, Christy……Whether you use “I” or “me” depends upon the context– “my daughter and I like chicken planks;” but “will you join my daughter and me for dinner?” If you can leave out “my daughter” in either of the above instances and be using good grammar, you are using the right form of the preposition, i. e., “I like chicken planks,” but “will you join me for dinner?” Maybe I should look up the exact rule…..but that is how tut can easily decide which is correct.
Yes! I stick to the rule that Charlice mentioned: If you can leave out the other person you’re referring to and the sentence still sounds right, then it is correct. You wouldn’t say “My daughter and me went to the store”, because you wouldn’t say “Me went to the store”!
It is my daughter and I. What you do is drop the daughter and say what remains. You would be saying..I went to the store.” Not “me” went to the store.
Me and my family love this recipe!! Every time I make it they rave about it and then devour every bite 🙂 Thank you for sharing it again!
Oops – I meant to say ‘My family and I’
I’m proud to have you and your family here no matter how you say it 🙂
Hey Christy
I didn’t know you had a degree in Home Economics… I do too from UNC-Greensboro… You don’t see too many people with that degree. Nowadays they call it Human Environmental Science at UNC-G….
Can’t wait to try the Chicken Fingers, I love fried chicken…
Katie
It’s a dying field, I’m afraid! I keep seeing hope of revival and there are still pockets of people who appreciate the degree. I’m so proud to have mine and learned so very much in the course of getting it. Great to see a fellow colleague! 🙂
Christy, you are so funny! Going to make these Saturday. One of those few ingredient recipes that makes an easy meal on a busy day. Thank you!
This is an easy recipe I LIKE easy, will try it, sounds good, and the 1/4 measuring cup is my favorite. I have done this with tilapia and it is good so will do chicken has to be good also.