September 15: Chicken Fingers with Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce and Spicy Chopped Salad

   Vegetable oil, for frying
1 1/2 pounds chicken tenders
   Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons ground dry mustard
2 eggs
2 cups plain bread crumbs
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup grainy Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons honey
1 bunch of watercress, chopped
6 radishes, thinly sliced
1 seedless cucumber, cut lengthwise, then cut into half-moons
3 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

In a large, deep skillet, heat 1 1/2 inches vegetable oil over medium-high heat.

Season the chicken tenders with salt and pepper. Set out 3 shallow dishes: Mix the flour and dry mustard in one. Beat the eggs with a splash of water or milk in a second; and place the bread crumbs in the third dish.

Coat the tenders in batches in the flour, then the eggs, and then the bread crumbs. Fry the tenders in small batches, 6 to 7 minutes. Drain on paper towels.

While the chicken is frying, in a bowl mix together the mayonnaise, grainy mustard, and honey to taste.

For the spicy chopped salad, combine the watercress, radishes, cucumbers, dill, and parsley in a large salad bowl or on a serving platter. Drizzle with the vinegar and EVOO and season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat.

Serve the chicken fingers with the honey mustard dipping sauce and spicy chopped salad.

4 SERVINGS

This is pretty good comfort food. Rachael Ray says: "Yup, call the kids to the table for this one!" I didn't change the recipe at all. Here are some things I did differently: I only used about 1/2 inch of oil. I used cut up chicken breasts instead of tenders. I used spinach because I couldn't find any watercress. I used a cucumber out of someone's garden instead of a seedless one. I used dried dill instead of fresh. And I just put some bottled salad dressing on the salad instead of the oil and vinegar. I wanted to try my new balsamic vinaigrette. It was good. Next time around I would have used maybe half the amounts of flour and bread crumbs. There was just too much left over that ended up being wasted.