I’ve woken up for the past 3 mornings to the drumbeat of rain on my roof. The rain itself is not terribly unusual, but the sheer volume seems out of the ordinary and, aside from temporary respites, the storm doesn’t seem to be abating. It’s the perfect time to sit at home and curl up in a blanket in front of the TV with a bowl of soup… that is if you don’t, you know, work or go to school or whatever. Unfortunately, I fall in the school-going category. So “nice warming bowl of soup” got upgraded to “nice burning sriracha marinated chicken strips with garlic horseradish chili oil and dill dipping sauce.”

I saw the recipe for these chicken strips on reddit originally and the poster from reddit saw it on foodgawker, which led him to Life’s Ambrosia. I gotta thank all three of them, because the recipe is simple and good. Especially if you like heat. But even if you don’t, this recipe can be modified to your taste preferences.

It was rainy, but pretty beautiful. San Francisco City Hall with Sutro Tower in the background

Making these chicken strips consists of three basic steps:

1. Marinate
2. Bread
3. Bake

This formula can be applied to shrimp, fish, or even pressed tofu to make crunchy spicy strips of goodness. Different ingredients can be added to the marinade or the breading to change the flavor. While this particular ingredient blend may not be for everyone, the technique can be used to make quite a few different healthy and delicious snacks.

However, if you’re in the mood for some heat, especially the neon red chili garlic heat of sriracha, then use these ingredients:

Sriracha, Ginger, and Rice Vinegar

Yeah, it’s mostly sriracha. I checked the recipe several times, but yeah, it’s mostly sriracha. Now, if that’s not your thing, use your own favorite marinade. Maybe barbeque sauce, soy sauce and ginger, or tequila and lime juice.

While it’s marinating, make your breading mix. This recipe calls specifically for panko, but

I only included this because the chili from Iran is in the shape of Iran. I so clever.

in general, if there’s a recipe that doesn’t call for a specific type of breading, I’m usually gonna go with panko bread crumbs. They’re crisper, bigger and easier to work with than regular breadcrumbs. I wanted to add some more heat here, so I added some chili powder that my cousin in Iran grew, dried and ground herself and some cayenne. If I had paprika, I would have added it as well.

Yes yes, I’m ashamed I don’t have any paprika in my kitchen. If it’s any consolation (and it certainly isn’t to me), I do have two containers of turmeric. I forgot that I had it yet a third time recently, but luckily remembered while in the checkout line and was able to put it among the gum.

Now here comes the most labor-intensive part of the whole process… breading the chicken. It can also be the most messy, so to not make that much of a mess make yourself an assembly line:

1. Lay out everything in order:
   1. Egg wash
   2. Seasoned panko bread crumb mix
   3. Cookie sheet with aluminum foil and pre-greased cooling racks on it
2. Designate one hand for wet and one hand for dry. Depending on the way you have your assembly line laid out, the hand closest to the egg wash should be wet and the hand closest to the bread crumbs should be dry.

Step 3 for me would be to take a picture of the assembly line, since you know, it is a food blog with pictures, but hey, I’m still learning and . So here, take a look at the finished product instead:

Breaded and ready for the oven

Once that’s done, pop it in the oven to cook the meat, then broil it to make them golden brown and delicious.

As for the dipping sauce, that’s entirely up to you. I just looked around and started adding stuff. To be perfectly honest, it wasn’t really amazing, but it wasn’t terrible, because its base was greek yogurt. As a matter of fact, I should’ve just used plain greek yogurt, maybe with a little dill. However, at the time, I wanted to up the heat, so I used the following:

Greek yogurt, dill, parsley, chili oil, sauteed garlic, horseradish, and olive oil... both soothes and increases the heat of the chicken strips.

However, like I said, dip it in whatever suits your fancy. If you don’t want to do anything crazy, go with ketchup or ranch. But, it’s more fun to experiment. You can use greek yogurt, sour cream, or mayo as your base and add in whatever spices you think might complement it.

Hey, it IS called Food By Z

Sriracha Chicken Strips

Crunchy and spicy.

• About a pound of chicken – The original recipe called for a 1 1/4 lbs of chicken, but I used 1 1/2 and had way more than a 1/3 left over. Sorry, if you’re not into fractions, I mean that a pound should be fine for one cookie sheet.
  • Like I said above, you can go with whatever type of meat you’d like. I think the things that would work the best are shrimp, some sort of firm fish, like cod, or pressed tofu. K, tofu’s not meat, but it can be delicious. I also went with chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts, but chicken breasts are much easier to work with. Chicken tenders are even easier than breasts.
• Sriracha
• Rice Vinegar
• Ginger
• Egg
• Panko bread crumbs
• Salt
• Dried chili spice of some kind – I went with cayenne and some ‘omegrown, but use whatever tickles your fancy

Make your marinade. Combine a bunch of sriracha (1/3 cup if you want to be exact) with a small spoonful of rice vinegar and a small spoonful of grated ginger (see, I told you it was mostly sriracha). Marinate the chicken for a half hour minimum. I wouldn’t go over about an hour and a half. Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees.

Now, set up your assembly line:

Egg wash (one beaten egg) –>

Panko bread crumbs, a small spoonful of salt, and whatever chili you want to add (you shouldn’t add more than what would add up to a big spoonful so that it doesn’t become overwhelming). I put it in a deep tupperware container or bowl so that I can shake the dish to cover the egg washed chicken piece with panko –>

Cookie sheet, covered in aluminum foil, covered in cookie cooling racks (I just picked mine up from Safeway) that you’ve greased somehow (rub it in oil or douse it with cooking spray)

Now, with one hand, take a marinated chicken piece, dip it in egg, let it drip, then toss it in the panko. With the OTHER HAND, shake the panko over it then pluck it out and place it on the cookie sheet. Repeat until you doubt if it’ll be worth how much work it is.

Then bake it at 400 for 20 minutes, then turn on the broiler for about 2-3 minutes. Take it out when it’s golden brown and serve with your favorite dipping sauce.

I’ve kinda got a hankering to make these with buffalo sauce. I like wings, but I also like crunch.

Oh, and yes, this warmed me up quite a bit. Cleared my sinuses too.