Pretzel Crusted Buffalo Chicken Tender Salad

Now that we are entering the warmer months, I am craving all of the salads! The only way salad will fully satisfy me at mealtime though, is if my salad contains both raw AND cooked ingredients. Especially if the salad is the main dish! Pretzel Crusted Buffalo Chicken Tender Salad combines fresh, crisp raw vegetables with savory, pan-fried chicken tenders. The crushed pretzel coating on the chicken tenders will eliminate the need to add a carb to this meal. The chicken tenders are topped off with a hearty drizzle of spicy buffalo sauce and the salad is is topped with cool, creamy blue cheese dressing.

Ingredients needed:

For the pretzel crusted chicken tenders:

• Chicken tenders
• All purpose flour
• 1 large bag of thin pretzels
• 2 eggs
• Salt, pepper, garlic powder
• Buffalo sauce
• Olive oil

For the blue cheese dressing:

• Crumbly blue cheese
• Sour cream
• Mayonnaise
• Lemon juice
• Worcester sauce
• Salt, pepper & garlic powder

For the salad:

• Romaine lettuce
• Cherry tomatoes
• Red onion

Equipment needed:

• Lodge Cast Iron Pan - If you don't already own a cast iron pan, I highly suggest purchasing one! You can purchase directly from the Lodge website or from Amazon. You can also find them at a variety of retail stores. I purchased mine from the camping gear section at Gander Mountain. I recommend purchasing the larger 12 inch size. Lodge cast iron is made in the USA, pre-seasoned and they are so versatile! You can cook anything from breakfast to dessert in them and take them straight from the stove-top to a hot oven.

How to make Pretzel Crusted Buffalo Chicken Tender Salad

Step 1:

The first thing you will need to do is turn your pretzels into pretzel crumbs (AKA bread crumbs). You will do this using either a food processor or a blender. Take about 4 large handfuls of pretzels and put them in your food processor or blender. Pulse the unit several times until your pretzels have turned into a mixture of fine and course crumbs.

Step 2:

Now you will need to set up your breading station. Your breading station is your all purpose flour on a plate, the eggs beaten in a large bowl and the pretzel crumbs on a large plate. You should also open up your package of chicken at this time and sprinkle salt, pepper and garlic powder on both sides of each chicken tender. I used about ¼ teaspoon salt, ⅛ teaspoon pepper and ¼ teaspoon garlic powder.

***After I posted the photo below I noticed that my kitchen helper, also known as my 3-year old daughter, pressed her handprint into my plate of flour! I didn't notice as I was taking the photo because I was too focused on making my recipe. I hope you can have as good of a laugh after seeing this as I did!

Step 3:

Now it's time to start breading. If you think you can bread your chicken tenders quickly, then you can start heating your oil on the stove while you are breading your chicken. To heat your oil, evenly coat your cast iron pan with olive oil and place the pan over a burner on your stove. Turn the burner on to low/medium-low. The burner that I use runs hot and I have a propane stove which tend to burner hotter than electric stoves. For this reason, I keep my burner on low for this recipe. Adjust your temperature according to your stove.

To bread your chicken, dredge each chicken tender in the all purpose flour, followed by the eggs and then into the pretzel crumbs.

Step 4:

After you have finished breading each chicken tender, you can start pan-frying the chicken tenders in the hot oil on your stove. Do not overcrowd the pan. You will most likely have to repeat this step 2-3 more times. Fry each chicken tender for 5 minutes, flip over and fry for an additional 5 minutes, cooking them for 10 minutes total.

Step 5:

After you have finished frying all of your pretzel crusted chicken tenders, lay them out on a cooling rack or a large plate. Using a spoon, evenly drizzle each chicken tender with buffalo sauce.

Now that you have completed the pretzel crusted chicken tenders with buffalo sauce, you can make the blue cheese dressing and the salad.

How to make Blue Cheese Dressing

Simply combine all ingredients for the blue cheese salad dressing in a medium-sized bowl. Using a large spoon, mix the ingredients together until well-combined. You can also use the back of your spoon to crush some of the chunks of blue cheese.

Assemble your salads:

Wash your salad greens and cherry tomatoes. Thinly slice your red onion. Chop your salad greens and halve the cherry tomatoes. Assemble your salad with your greens on the bottom, topped with the cherry tomatoes and the red onion. Top each salad with 2 chicken tenders and a few dollops of blue cheese dressing and some extra crumbly blue cheese. Enjoy!

Frequently asked questions:

Check out some of my other popular recipes that feature chicken!

• Pretzel Crusted Chicken Breast with Warm Blue Cheese Sauce
• Roasted Potatoes and Asparagus with Grilled Chicken

Please leave me a recipe comment below! Let me know if you plan on trying this recipe or leave me a review after you have tried it!

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