Nicholas Gavin is the Culinary Creative Director of ChefSteps, where he develops recipes and is responsible for making all the food look beautiful. Nick has worked at ChefSteps for over a decade; he and ChefSteps co-founder Grant Crilly worked together at Modernist Cuisine. Nick has worked in professional kitchens both in the United States and abroad, most notably at Mugaritz in San Sebastian, Spain.

Nicholas Gavin

Few things are as universally appealing as chicken tenders. Kids love ’em, which is why they’re on every kid’s menu. Adults love ’em, too, which is why there are all those rules about adults ordering off the kid’s menu.But there are times when chicken tenders don’t live up to their potential as an S-tier dippable food. Sometimes, they’re just bad. The fact of the matter is that it’s challenging to make a great chicken tender. They don’t have skin and bones to insulate their lean meat from the intense heat of the fryer—the hotter the better to get the coating super-craggly and crisp and browned before the tender turns to cardboard. And getting the crust to stick to the dang things is crucial, as is making sure that the crust stays crisp for as long as it takes to take down a half dozen.We came up with a special starch blend for both the batter and the dredge that crisps and browns fast and produces a substantially craggy crust without compromising on the juiciness and tenderness of the meat within.These tenders are built for dippin’—all those crags have lots of pockets to trap sauce, and we’ve got some dipping sauce suggestions for serving—but they’re delicious dusted with seasoned salt or even straight up.

Ultra-Crispy Chicken Tenders