I have to admit, I love fried foods. If you batter something and fry it, I’ll eat it - cheese, Mars bars, you name it. I have a particular fondness for chicken tenders, since I practically lived on them in college (this was before I discovered things like home cooking and, say, nutrition).

Of course, there’s very little worse for you than traditional fried chicken tenders: they’re loaded with fat, calories, and empty carbohydrates. That’s where this recipe comes in. By using whole-grain soy flour instead of regular flour, this breading cuts down the carbs to a total of 8 grams, 3 of which are dietary fiber, for a total of 5g usable carbs for the whole batch. And soy flour, unlike bleached white flour, also has a lot of protein - 10g per 1/4 cup serving. That’s enough to get your mouth watering, no?

For two people, you’ll need:
5-6 chicken tenderloin pieces
1/4 cup whole-grain soy flour (I like Bob’s Red Mill Organic)
1/2 tsp. creole seasoning (I like Tony Chachere’s)
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1 egg
1 tsp. each heavy cream and water
2-3 tbsp. peanut oil

Heat oil in a heavy pan or dutch oven, and preheat oven to 350F.

Stir together soy flour, creole seasoning, and garlic powder in a shallow dish or pie plate.

In a separate dish, beat together egg, cream, and water until thoroughly combined.

Dip chicken tenders first in breading mixture, then in egg wash, then in breading. Carefully place them in hot oil (I always use tongs for this - this stuff spatters a lot at first).

You’ll need to pay close attention to these while they’re frying, because the soy flour burns very quickly - I only browned them a minute or two on each side. Transfer browned pieces to a baking sheet and bake until chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes.

These tenders are not as crunchy as traditional fried chicken, but they have less fat and far fewer carbs and, in Steve’s opinion, are better because they’re lighter: since they don’t fry very long, they don’t have time to absorb much oil, and the soy flour isn’t heavy when fried like bleached white flour can be. With seasoned dredging flour, they’re also really tasty, and are perfect to satisfy your junk-food cravings.

On a side note: I decided to play around with jicama fries to serve with our fried chicken, since George Stella (one of my favorite low-carb cooks) has a recipe for them in his book Livin’ Low Carb. While I typically like his recipes, I have to say these fries didn’t do anything for either Steve or me. I tried them two ways, matchstick and home-style, and neither crisped up very well. I probably won’t be trying these fries again, but the chicken is definitely a winner!