Southern Fried Chicken Fingers With Green Peppercorn Mayonnaise

From Alive and Cooking. I would say this would serve 10 to 12 as an appetizer or 6 to 8 as part of a main course. Time includes soaking chicken in milk for 1 hour and preparing the mayo, which can be done while chicken is steeping in the milk (takes about 10 minutes to do including getting ingredients and equipment out), 5 minutes to cut and steep chicken and about 15 to 25 minutes to prepare your flour, egg etc and do the dipping. We tweaked some of the amounts to suit ourselves, have put the original amounts in brackets. Needs to be served ASAP out of the oil to get the crispiness but even that said it is still very tasteful after it has lost its crispiness. DH declared he would prefer the chicken without the Mayo. I made a half batch and had more than enough for the 4 of us (I could have halved again and it would have been just right for us) I actually found the mayo to be quite rich in its taste and had only a small amount but the DM and DS I think would have been happy to eat by the spoonful (could use excess in sandwiches etc). If serving as an appetizer you may wish to serve other sauces with it, the DH thought he would prefer a sweet and sour or a sweet chili (but one with a bit of kick, not overly sweet).

• Ready In: 2 hrs
• Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

• 4 (200 g)  chicken breast fillets (boneless and skinless)
• 1⁄2 cup milk
• 2  eggs (lightly beaten)
• 1  tablespoon lemon juice
• 1  cup plain flour
• 2  teaspoons dried thyme (1 tablespoon, ground, if available)
• 2  teaspoons rosemary (I used fresh)
• 2  teaspoons paprika
• 1  teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon garlic powder (salt was specified)
•  peanut oil (or canola for deep frying)

• Green Peppercorn Mayonnaise (makes 1 1/2 cups)

• 1  cup mayonnaise (I used a whole egg mayo)
• 1⁄2 cup sour cream
• 2  spring onions (finely chopped)
• 1  tablespoon green peppercorn (crushed)
• 1  tablespoon chives (I used garlic chives snipped)
• 2  teaspoons capers (finely chopped)
• 1  teaspoon French mustard (I used Dijon)

Directions

1. For the chicken cut chicken fillets into long strips and soak in milk for 1 hour.
2. While the chicken is soaking make the green peppercorn mayonnaise by combining all ingredients together and refrigerate until required.
3. Drain the chicken, reserving the milk.
4. Whisk reserved milk, eggs and lemon juice together.
5. Combine the flour, spices and salts.
6. Dip chicken pieces in seasoned flour, dip in egg mixture and re-coat with flour.
7. Heat oil in a wok, large saucepan or deep fryer and fry chicken till golden brown (this will need to be done in 2 to 4 batches depending on the size of your wok etc.
8. Drain on absorbent paper.
9. To achieve an extra crispy crust, quickly deep fry again before serving, if desired.
10. Serve with green peppercorn mayonnaise.