Raise your hand if you’ve had the Beer and Mustard Battered Chicken Fingers from Chicago Joe’s? I feel like only a handful of you raised your hands (that handful being people in my family), and that’s fine, because there are only a few of these restaurants in existence. That being said, if you are ever near a Victoria Inn with a Chicago Joe’s make certain that you go in there and order the chicken fingers, I promise you will not be disappointed. My grandma introduced them to me many years ago and while I can probably count on one hand the number of times I have actually eaten them.. I still think about them every time I pass a Chicago Joe’s .. not to be confused with Original Joe’s…

Until then, I’ve got a recipe for you that is inspired by the delicious gift of chicken tenders that Chicago Joe’s has given the world. You’re welcome (not that they are anywhere near the same.. I don’t even use beer batter). If you’re anything like me you appreciate going into the freezer and grabbing something that you can just toss in the oven (aka frozen chicken tenders). But in the same breath, I’d much rather just make everything homemade. That’s where these come in, because they hardly take any more time than the frozen ones, are better for you and certainly, more tasty.

The recipe that follows, is for ONE chicken breast. If you are one person, I promise one chicken breast will be enough. The nice thing about this, is that you can use your multiplication skills if you are cooking for more than one person. Bear in mind that not all chicken breasts are created equally and you may need more butter, flour, hot mustard or Panko crumbs – so don’t put any of that away until they’ve gone into the oven! But honestly, one breast per person will probably be sufficient, especially if you’re cooking some sides (I peeled and chopped a sweet potato and tossed it in oil, salt and pepper with some broccoli and baked on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes at 450 degrees F.. just saying).

To make the hot mustard, I used yellow mustard and the Franks Hot Sauce that was in the fridge, which is the sauce specific for making buffalo wings. This sauce is a little bit thicker than the regular Franks, and I’m pretty sure it is a bit milder, so I do recommend buying it for this recipe. Can you use regular Franks? Of course! I would just use a lot less, taste and add more until you’ve reached a good amount of heat. Another little tid bit is that you should just buy your Panko (or regular, or gfree breadcrumbs) from a bulk foods store. I realize I say this in nearly every post, but it’s honestly the way to go! And, like I said, you can get yourself a few Dino-sours and chocolate covered almonds for the drive home.

If you’re not totally convinced that you will like these… Just dip your naked chicken fingers into the flour, then butter, then breadcrumbs. And bake for the same amount of time. Heck, if you want a variety, just put them on the same sheet and bake away! It’s easy to tell which are which, so you’re not going to be left wondering which ones have spicy bites (like the time I was greedy and tried eating a perogy straight out of the frying pan while my mom watched with a SMIRK because she knew I was about to bite into a sauerkraut perogy and I didn’t like sauerkraut yet. GROSS SURPRISE THANKS MOM)

Anywho, these are pretty quick to put together, I promise. And if you’ve gotta be gluten free.. I’m sorry that you can’t have Panko, but you can still get gluten free breadcrumbs! If you’re running low on time or energy, you can totally skip the butter and flour and simply coat the chicken in the hot mustard and then the breadcrumbs. I did them both ways, and they both were great (but who doesn’t love butter…). Oh and before I forget, yes, you can totally fry these and if you do, please let me know how delicious they were because I’m already jealous.

PS I listened to Macklemore’s most recent album on repeat while working on this so.. you should give it a whirl while you’re in the kitchen whipping up these chicken fingers/tenders/strips.

Cheers!