Air fryer Buffalo chicken tenders are predictably good

There are some foods that are exceptionally difficult to screw up. We've covered some of them in AirFryDay. Things like crispy cheese or mini mozz sticks, or really anything cheesy, I guess.

I'd argue chicken tenders fall into this category. Sure, some chicken tenders are elite, some are kind of meh, but it's truly difficult to make a chicken tender that I flat-out wouldn't eat. That being said, a viral air fryer Buffalo chicken tender recipe I tested out for this week's AirFryDay ended up falling somewhere between elite and meh.

The TL;DR: The recipe from @thezachrocheleau produced tenders that were certainly better than your garden-variety frozen tendies — while requiring much more work — while also not approaching the elite level. In other words, they're pretty tasty. Here are the details, via Rocheleau's TikTok that racked up more than one million views.

Ingredients

• 40 oz of chicken breast

• 100 grams of all purpose flour

• 20 grams corn starch

• 1 egg, plus 50 grams of egg whites (I used the whites of one extra egg)

• Buffalo hot sauce, such as Frank's

• 150 grams panko bread crumbs

Directions

1. Slice the chicken breast into roughly tender size pieces (about 2.5 ounces).

2. In a bowl or deep-rimmed plate, mix all purpose flour and corn starch. Season with salt, garlic powder, and whatever else you like. For instance, if you wanted extra spicy tenders, you could season with cayenne pepper.

3. In another bowl, whip together the egg, egg yolks, and hot sauce (as much as your spice-loving heart desires).

4. Fill a third bowl with panko bread crumbs.

5. Now it's time to do a classic breading procedure. If you're coordinated enough — this is hard for me — use a wet hand, dry hand method, using one hand to dip the tender in the flour and panko, while the other is reserved for the egg. First, coat the tender in the flour, then drop and coat in the egg mixture. Then drop the tender into the panko and coat evenly. Then repeat this process — flour, egg, panko — to give every tender that double-coating extra crunch.

6. Spray your air fryer basket or tray with nonstick, then air fry the tenders at 360 degrees for nine minutes, flipping the tenders about halfway through the cook. Enjoy!

The Details

First things first, if you're making this recipe for one or two people, you do no need to make 40 grams of chicken tenders. Rocheleau is clearly doing some meal prepping here — the recipe is promoted as 100 calorie tenders — but for just one meal, you probably need one or two breasts at most.

All in all, however, this is a pretty straightforward recipe. I consider it a mid-tier recipe: It's more difficult than a frozen bag of tenders, but far easier than, say, making a batter, then frying fantastic tendies. Here's how the process looked for Rocheleau.

Pretty good tenders! Credit: Screenshots: TikTok / @thezachrocheleau

For me, it was pretty simple. I sliced the chicken into strips. Then the breading process. I struggle with wet-hand, dry-hand method. It's a lot of coordination and I also lack patience. But it does help stop huge clumps from forming on the ends of your fingers. In short: I did the best I could. In just a bit of time I had four tenders ready to be air fried. Here's how mine looked, prepped for the air fryer.

Mmmm....raw chicken. Credit: Mashable

I air-fried for nine minutes at 360 degrees Fahrenheit, just as the TikTok suggested. And you know what? The tenders turned out perfect. The panko created a nice crunch. There was a hint of spice from the hot sauce. And the chicken breast retained its juice and moisture. I'd say my final product looked close to identical to the viral TikTok recipe.

Finished, tasty, tendies. Credit: Mashable

I think this would be a perfect recipe for a quick, crowd-pleasing meal or snack. It's Buffalo chicken tenders and it's relatively healthy. There's no oil and no batter, but some spice and some crunch. What's not to love?