Mike Devlin Shares Taylor Swift Inspired Chicken Tenders Recipe (Better Than Takeaway)

Evidently, this is one of Taylor Swift’s favourite foods (that and pot roast, popcorn, In ’n’ Out burgers, and so on), and fans of hers have naturally jumped on them.

But how does she like them (All Too Well, probably), and can I make them professionally, yet explain how you can easily do them? What am I saying? Of course I can. But as with everything, you need to do it properly and have a little patience (but not for a fortnight—sorry, I’ll stop now), much like awaiting her wedding date.

What you need (for the chicken)
Fresh chicken fillets/strips
Salt
White sugar
Room-temperature water

Buttermilk

Flour
Cornflour
Salt
Smoked paprika
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Confectioners’/powdered sugar

Neutral oil

(For the ranch)
Buttermilk
Plain/Greek yoghurt
Mayonnaise
Dill
Parsley
Coriander/cilantro
Onion powder
Garlic powder
Lemon juice
Salt and pepper

First up, the easy bit: get a litre of water (1.75 pints) and add 30 g/1¼ oz of salt and a tablespoon of white sugar. This should be enough for upwards of 500 g/1 lb of chicken.

It needs to be room temperature to aid dissolving the salt and sugar; under no circumstances can this be anything more than ever so slightly warm.

Throw the chicken in, ensuring it does not have fat still attached, and refrigerate. Leave for one hour. Go and do something—anything.

This is tenderising the meat and adding extra moisture.

After an hour, remove and rinse, then drop into buttermilk and refrigerate for two hours. Admittedly, this will not have quite the same effect because we have just water-brined it, but it will make a difference.

No buttermilk? No problem. Get some full-fat milk and squeeze in a little lemon juice, give it a stir, and let it sit for five minutes.

Whatever it was you were doing for that hour, you can go back to it, as you now have another two hours. I wonder what her colour scheme will be—pastel green, perhaps?

The flour mix you can actually prepare before you disappear, so do not think about walking off; I do not care what I said. If we base it on 500 g/1 lb of chicken, weigh out 250 g/10 oz flour, 80 g/3 oz cornflour, 1 tbsp of confectioners’/powdered sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp smoked paprika, 1 tbsp garlic powder, and 1 tbsp onion powder. Give it all a good sift and stir. The sugar is an old Southern States trick that enhances all the flavours.

Now you can go and do whatever.

Wipe down the chicken (it does not have to be completely clean, just Shake It Off), but before you start dipping, drop a few bits of the buttermilk into the dry mix; this will create small clumps of coating that will make extra crispy bits—we, and Taylor, love those.

Your oil (you can use sunflower, vegetable, or even peanut) must be around 175°C/350°F, and only place four or five strips in at once—any more and they will clump together and drop the temperature.

Coat the strips well and carefully place them into the oil. They will take about five minutes, after which you can place them in a warm oven whilst you do the rest.

You could double-dip if you reckon you have enough coating, in which case back into the buttermilk and into the mix again before entering the oil.

Now, evidently, Taylor loves what is known as “Seemingly Ranch”, a simple ranch with ketchup in it. To be honest, it sounds odd, but if the Queen of Pop likes it, then so be it. However, there is ranch and then there is RANCH, and whilst, yes, you North Americans can easily buy the regular kind (and Heinz did bring out a “Seemingly” variety), for the rest of the world it is not so easily purchased.

This is where I come in, and where not just ranch, but RANCH enters the party.

Let’s go with two tablespoons each of buttermilk and yoghurt, and one of mayonnaise. Give it a good mix, then add 1 tsp each of all the dry ingredients, then a squeeze of lemon and a pinch of salt and pepper.

This is a rich, creamy, tangy, herby, and thicker dipping sauce that will actually cling to the chicken tenders, rather than fall off hopelessly.

It is now up to you as to whether you are going to mix ketchup through it.

There we have it: the Ultimate Taylor Tenders—Look What You Made Me Do.