Easy Ranch Fried Chicken Tenders
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All you need is four ingredients, including ranch dressing mix, to make these flavorful and easy fried chicken tenders.
My family has cow fits when I make crispy fried chicken tenders of any kind. It’s like a national holiday or something and while they light up with delight at seeing the holiday show up when they least expect it, I stand around shaking my head, wondering what the big deal is.
But I know what it is – a rarity. I hardly ever fry chicken. Why? ~shrugs~ I just don’t like to. It’s just not my favorite thing to do, plain and simple. However, this for is flavorful and simple to make and you’ll probably only need to look at the recipe the first time you do it.
I’ve even included a list of “pro tips” at the bottom of the post to ensure fried chicken tender success. This chicken is great on its own, with a fast Italian cucumber salad as pictured, or dipped in comeback sauce. Of course, the traditional sides of mashed potatoes and creamed corn wouldn’t hurt either.
If you have my book, Come Home To Supper, this recipe for Crispy Fried Chicken Tenders is listed as “Flavorful Fried Chicken” on page 83.
Recipe Ingredients
- Vegetable oil (for frying). I use refined coconut oil but you can use whatever you like.
- A packet of ranch dressing mix
- All-purpose flour
- Eggs
- About 2 pounds (give or take) of boneless skinless chicken tenders
How To Make Ranch Fried Chicken Tenders
Stir together the ranch dressing mix and flour.
In another bowl, beat the eggs.
It’s not often that we have an opportunity to willfully beat things and goodness knows that living with the nonsense we do in today’s world we have the need to from time to time, so really get into this if it makes you feel better. I understand.
Pour your oil to a depth of about 1/2-inch or so (it can be less if you are short on oil) in a large skillet and place this over medium-high heat for a few minutes until it is good and hot.
If you are using coconut oil it will go in as a solid and melt for you right away on medium-high heat. You can tell it is hot by dropping just a pinch of flour into it. If the flour bubbles a bit, it’s ready. Reduce heat to medium and prepare your chicken.
Dip each into the egg mixture on both sides, and then into the flour on both sides. Gently place in the oil and cook until browned on both sides and no longer pink in the center, turning as needed.
Remove each to a paper towel-lined plate to drain before serving.
Oh, Mercy! This is good stuff! Here is a batch of my easy fried chicken tenders served as a alongside a refreshingly simple side salad. YUM.
And if you really want to take your chicken over the top, click here to get this super easy comeback dipping sauce recipe!
Storage
Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat either in the oven or air fryer to make the coating crispy once more.
Tips On How To Fry Chicken
- The secret to frying chicken that isn’t greasy is making sure your oil is hot enough. That is why I allow my oil to preheat on medium-high heat for a few minutes. Then I check it and turn it down to medium before I add my breaded chicken tenders.
- To see if your oil is hot enough, drop a small pinch of flour into it. If the flour bubbles, the oil is hot enough. To avoid it being too hot, turn it down to medium heat and wait a minute before adding your chicken.
- If you really love the breading, double-dip your chicken! Set up an extra bowl of milk and dip your chicken in that, then the flour, then the egg wash and flour mixture again. Think of that first dipping as creating a “glue” that is going to help adhere that breading mixture to the chicken.
- Fight the gunk! Breading chicken can be a gunky process as the flour and egg wash builds up on your fingertips fast and the flour mixture itself can get pretty gunked up, making it hard to coat your chicken. Fight this by letting the egg wash drip off each for a few seconds before moving it to the flour mixture, and washing your hands in between each batch (not each piece, but every five or six pieces). I wash my hands a lot when I’m breading anything. If you find your flour mixture tends to get gunky more often than not, try only using half of it at a time so that you can add in a fresh batch when the need arises.
- Paper towel-lined plates are a must! Always always always let your chicken sit on a paper towel-lined plate for a few minutes to get rid of any persistent surface grease and have the best crunchy and imaginable.
- Frying bone-in chicken is easy and hands-off when you let your oven do all the work. Check out my recipe for doing just that by clicking here.
Recipe Notes
- You can just cut some boneless skinless chicken breasts in strips if you like. You can also take it from yard bird to table but I can’t walk you through that because the folks who think meat grows on styrofoam trays will freak out!
Recipe FAQs
What vegetable oil should I use to fry?
I personally use coconut oil to be a bit healthier as this is a stable oil with a high heat point which means it doesn’t break down at high temperatures to more unhealthy fats. It is high in saturated fat but the saturated fats from plants are not the same as saturated fats from animal fat so some studies say it’s a better option. I used the refined kind as I am not a big fan of a strong coconut taste but they have unrefined as well. This is solid at room temp but when you apply heat, it liquefies easily.
You can use Ghee or lard or animal fats to fry if you like.
Other options for healthier oils are avocado oil, or some people use olive oil. But I find this loses its flavor when heated for a long time. It also tends to break down at higher and longer heating temps and times so this may decrease its wonderful health benefits. I stick to using olive oil to drizzle on foods after they are cooked or I use a little in a pan for coating.
Check out these other easy chicken recipes:
Easy Chicken and Dumplings With Biscuits
AMAZING & EASY Crock Pot Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Chicken With Fried Rice Easy Peasy (And You Can Freezey)
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 package dry ranch dressing mix 1 ounce
- 2 eggs
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast tenders
- vegetable oil for frying, I use coconut oil but you can use what you like.
Instructions
- Pour oil to a depth of about 1/4inch and place over medium to medium-high heat while you prepare the chicken.vegetable oil
- Stir together the flour and ranch dressing mix in a shallow bowl.1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 package dry ranch dressing mix
- Crack the eggs into a separate bowl and beat well with a fork.2 eggs
- Dip each piece of chicken into the eggs to coat, then dredge each chicken tender in the flour mixture on both sides.2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast tenders
- Check the oil to see if it is hot enough (see pro tips in the post on how to do this) and reduce heat to medium.
- Place the breaded chicken pieces into the oil a few at a time, being careful not to overcrowd the skillet. Cook until browned on both sides and no longer pink in the center, turning as needed.
Nutrition
If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble,
you wouldn’t sit for a month.
~Theodore Roosevelt
I am with you Christy not big on frying chicken I like it but do not like the mess it makes so I am going to try your oven fried chicken. Thanks sweetie I love your posts and your recipes. You seem like the next door neighbor that would be fun to have coffee with and exchange favorite recipes with and go shopping with. I feel like I know you and i look forward to hearing from you, too bad I live in Texas and you in Alabama I sure would love to attend that biscuit and gravy class. I can make a pretty mean gravy but my biscuits are hit and miss. Well girl you have a blessed day and a great week!
We would have so much fun as neighbors!! I hope you have a blessed week as well Patricia!!
I don’t fry or eat fried foods so do you think these could be baked?
This is my question too! Love fried but if able to bake as an alternative…
Hey! I don’t recommend this recipe for baking as the breading only gets nice and crispy when fried. However, I have a great oven “fried” chicken recipe that will give you delicious crispy chicken when baked. Here it is: https://www.southernplate.com/2014/03/grannys-oven-fried-chicken.html
These look and sound so good!!! I can’t wait to try them! And the yard bird thing is funny–my grandpap used to raise chickens when I was a little girl. And one of my aunts lived on a farm. I know where food starts, lol!!
I hope you get the chance to try them soon Beverly!! 🙂
This recipe looks so good! I cannot wait to try it. Hubby does not like chicken any more 🙁 but I will certainly make some for myself! I laughed out loud when I read your yard bird statement – hysterical!!!
🙂 It is so true though…LOL
I am so excited about the Comeback Sauce and Ranch Fried Chicken Tenders recipes. I absolutely love Comeback Sauce with Chicken Tenders and have been wanting a good recipe!
Are you going to be able to butcher and eat your chickens when the day comes? My son and wife have eight hens that they have truly made into pets. They all have names and each one gets held and petted daily. He could never kill and eat them. They are into their third year of age now and so the egg laying has slowed. He inadvertently got two roosters in his chicks as he had planned on ten hens. He did not want to have a male in the hen house so he gave them away but only after having the new owner swear to never eat them. I guess I am a doubting Thomas but I truly feared the guy had them for supper that very night!
I’ve done it before and absolutely can should the need arise. I set out to teach myself how to do the things my great grandmother did to feed her family and so far I’ve managed to acquire quite a bit of hands on knowledge, which I’m pretty proud of. I realized years ago that I wanted to be able to provide for my family in the old ways and I’ve really enjoyed the confidence that has come as I learned what I needed to along the way. 🙂
When I first started this leg of my journey, I happened upon some wonderful wisdom from a man who raised his own meat. He said people would ask him “How can you kill them? Aren’t they pets? That’s so inhumane.”
He said that he enjoyed his animals. He spent time with them every day, petting them, talking to them, making sure they always had the best food, treats, and fresh water. The meat you buy in grocery store has more often than not been raised in deplorable conditions, and possibly butchered under even worse. But this man provided the best he could for his animals each day and the way he saw it, they just had one bad day their whole lives.
That just made a whole lot of sense to me, I guess.
P.S. My hens are just for eggs right now 🙂
I am not a PETA advocate nor judgmental –just not sure I could do it. Enjoy the chickens-my son certainly has. I often hear about them and see pictures.
Oh I didn’t mean to sound at all like I thought you were. This is just something I’ve thought of a while so wanted to share a fully developed thought on it :). I love the sound of happy little chickens clucking away. Mine love to sing! I wish everyone could have chickens. They are the easiest critters I’ve ever had. I didn’t think you sounded the least big judgmental. Of course, you’ve been around Southern Plate for years and I know how good hearted you are so I can’t imagine you being judgmental anyway.
Hubby and I are new to having chickens in the back yard. We, too, are in it for the eggs, not the meat. We have 4 Pullets that were given to us and some we bought when they were 2 weeks old – now 3 months. It is a lot of fun watching them and so soothing to hear the little ones going “peep peep” at night. Right now, we are in the midst of having a couple of our older ones having some sort of sickness. Thank God for our friend from whom we bought the chicks. He is quite the “chicken doctor” and does not might coming here to help treat them. It is so sad to see them this way. Breaks my heart. Our Goldie, a Buff Orpington Hen, used to be so much fun to carry on a conversation with, but not so much, right now. I am hoping to have her back to normal, soon. I miss our one on ones.
I am so sorry to hear about your girls that are not feeling well Sharon. Keep me updated on what is going on!!
Thank you, Cristy. The chickens are doing much better. This morning, they had a fun game of keep away with pieces of an apple I shared with them. The best thing is Goldie and I had a nice chat in-between bites.
🙂 I am so glad they are doing better!
That gentleman makes sense to me, the Lord gave us dominion over all the earth but he also gave us the responsibility to care for it. I think providing for and caring for the animals in a loving and nurturing way is respectful and when we take their lives in order to sustain ours we are still being respectful and I think you get a better quality of meat that way. Of course at this time this is only a philosophical discussion for me as I have no livestock of any kind at this time. But I hope that I would treat any animal I planned to eat with respect and care.
I am so proud of you for wanting to know how to do things the old way!!! There is no shame in knowing how to feed your family from scratch.
I was raised country and helped with butchering our own meats for our family. I am proud that I was raised to live off the land as much as possible. We grew our own veggies. We canned everything including chicken. It was my job to catch, kill, n dip the chickens in a huge iron kettle of boiling water that was outside in the yard. The aunts took them from there. I remember they used ironstone crocks.
Not everyone could, or should, know these things because there are grocery stores everywhere now with those styrofoam containers…and tin cans. Lol
Still, I am proud to know that I could, if the need arose. Good on you, Christy!!! Love ya!!!
Thank you Kay!! Love you too!!!
Fifty four years ago, my parents moved from the city to a wonderful farm and were determined to teach their children the ‘olde ways’ they grew up with in war torn Germany. Living off the land as much as possible – treating everything – plants, animals – especially people with love, kindness and respect and I am blessed to have had that ‘training’ and strive to hang on to each and every day. In five years, I hope to retire to a place in the country once more and return to those roots. Right now, I live that dream vicariously through a friend of mine that raises animals and I get my fix (LOL) every time I visit.
Way to go, Ms Christy for keeping that heritage alive and well. God bless and have a beautiful and awesome day.
What a wonderful legacy your parents gave you!!
I totally agree Christy. Having been raised in the heart of farming country, you learn that some animals are a source of food not something you love like a pet. Treat them with respect and care for them like your life depends on it, because often it does.
I was always taught to say a prayer and thank God for this wonderful creature giving it’s life for us, and to be thankful for the joy of knowing such a noble bird!
I kept chickens for many years. Black Australopes are very docile, and lay a lot of eggs. I recommend them for anyone interested in raising poultry.
It’s a shame I’m too old to do that anymore, but I have a lot of memories of those lovely chickens!
My husband loves chicken and ranch dressing. Guess what he is going to have for supper? Thank you, Christy. I will be devouring a bowl of your fast Italian cucumber salad. 🙂 Have a wonderful day!