Crispy Chicken Tenders with Buttery Corn Rice

Ingredients

• 600g chicken breast mini fillets
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 80g plain flour
• 120g panko breadcrumbs
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp garlic granules
• 4 tbsp vegetable oil
• 600ml hot chicken stock
• 300g basmati rice, rinsed
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 40g unsalted butter
• 200g sweetcorn, drained if tinned
• 15g flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 0.5 lemon, cut into wedges
• Dressed green salad, to serve
• creamy coleslaw, to serve
• garlic bread, to serve

Method

1. Tip the flour onto a plate with the smoked paprika, garlic granules and a generous pinch of salt and black pepper. Rub the spices into the flour with your fingers — this is your dry bloom, and it means the paprika and garlic granules cling to the chicken and toast as the crust fries, rather than tasting dusty and raw.
2. Season the chicken fillets on both sides with salt and pepper before they go anywhere near the flour — seasoning the meat itself is non-negotiable, the crust can't fix bland chicken underneath. Dip each fillet first into the seasoned flour, then the beaten egg (let the excess drip back), then press firmly into the panko so every surface is thickly coated. Rest the crumbed tenders on a board for 5 minutes — this lets the crust grip when it hits the oil.
3. Melt half the butter in a medium saucepan with a tight-fitting lid. Soften the onion over a gentle heat for 4 to 5 minutes until sweet, translucent and starting to smell mellow — no hard colour at the edges, you want sweetness, not caramelisation.
4. Stir the rice through the buttery onion until each grain is glossy, then tip in the sweetcorn and pour over the hot stock with a good pinch of salt. Bring to a brisk boil, clamp on the lid, drop to the lowest simmer and cook for 12 minutes without lifting the lid once — every peek loses steam and the rice stops cooking evenly. Slide off the heat and rest, still covered, for 5 minutes.
5. While the rice cooks, heat the vegetable oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat until it shimmers and a stray crumb sizzles on contact. Fry the tenders in two batches, giving them room — crowd the pan and the temperature drops, the crumb goes soggy and you've steamed them instead of frying them. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes per side until deeply golden and shatter-crisp, the meat white through and juices running clear. Drain on kitchen paper and season with salt while still hot — salt only sticks to crust that's still glistening.
6. Fork the remaining butter through the rested rice until the grains are fluffy and the corn glints through. Taste, season, taste again — it should be properly buttery with little pops of sweetness, and the salt should be settled before it reaches the table, not after.
7. Pile the rice into bowls, sit the crispy tenders on top, scatter with the chopped parsley and squeeze a wedge of lemon over the chicken — the acid cuts the fried crust and lifts everything you've just built. Serve with the remaining lemon wedges, a spoonful of creamy coleslaw and warm garlic bread on the side.