Butter Pecan Fried Chicken

If you read here regularly than you’ll know that I like to sneak dessert into every meal. I’ve done it for breakfast several times, lunch and now I can say I have officially done it for dinner time too!

I’ve seen several versions of red velvet fried chicken the last few months but my dad though butter pecan and chicken would be a great combination. The sweet and salty combination is a fun dinner time or snack time treat!

Next time the only change I would make would be to pulse the pecans a little more finely. My advice would be to fry the chicken in only a small amount of oil and on a low medium heat. The batter can burn easily. I finished my chicken off in the oven for 10 minutes at 180 C.

Butter Pecan Fried Chicken
cake batter adapted from Taste of Home (serves 2)

Ingredients
500g chicken breast fillets, seasoned lightly with salt and pepper
1/4  cup plus 1 tsp salted butter at room temperature (salted so it tastes sweet and salty)
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1/4 cup milk
2-3 tbs vegetable oil for frying

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C in case your chicken isn’t cooked in the middle after frying and also to keep it warm while you fry all the pieces.

2. In your frying pan melt the one teaspoon of butter and add the pecans. Cook for about 4 minutes. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl cream the sugar and 1/4 cup butter together until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time. Beat in the vanilla. Add the flour, baking powder and salt alternately with the milk. Fold in the pecans.

4. In the same frying pan used to toast the pecans add the vegetable oil (only enough to coat the bottom of the pan). Set to medium low heat.

5. Dunk the chicken fingers into the batter. Take the pieces one by one and place in the pan. Make sure the piece is fully coated. Fry one each side until golden brown about 3-4 minutes on each side.

6. Fry in batches. Place the pieces in the oven to keep warm.

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