Fried Chicken Strips with Slaw and Honey Mustard

Ingredients

• 700g skinless chicken breast fillets, cut into thick strips
• 200ml buttermilk
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper
• 180g plain flour
• 40g cornflour
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp onion powder
• vegetable oil, for frying
• 300g white cabbage, finely shredded
• 2 carrots, coarsely grated
• 3 tbsp mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 2 tbsp wholegrain mustard
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 3 tbsp clear honey
• 2 tbsp mayonnaise
• ½ lemon, juice only
• fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped, to serve
• flaky sea salt, to serve
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges, to serve
• brioche burger buns, to serve
• skin-on fries, to serve
• dill pickles, sliced, to serve

Method

1. Whisk the buttermilk with the garlic powder, smoked paprika and cayenne in a bowl, seasoning generously with salt and pepper — this is your only chance to get salt into the meat itself, so don't be shy. Add the chicken strips, turn until every piece is slick, and leave to marinate for at least 15 minutes (an hour is better) while you build everything else.
2. Tip the shredded cabbage and grated carrot into a large bowl. Add the mayonnaise, cider vinegar and caster sugar, season with salt and pepper, and toss hard until every strand glistens. Cover and chill — the salt draws a little water out, the vinegar wakes it up, and the slaw stays crunchy rather than going limp.
3. Whisk both mustards with the honey, mayonnaise and lemon juice in a small bowl until glossy. Taste it: it should be sweet, sharp and warm all at once. Season, taste again, and set aside.
4. Mix the plain flour, cornflour, smoked paprika, garlic powder and onion powder in a wide shallow bowl with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Toast the dry spices into the flour by rubbing them through with your fingertips for 30 seconds — it sounds fussy, but it wakes the paprika and garlic powder up so they taste of themselves rather than of dust once they hit the oil.
5. Pour vegetable oil into a large deep heavy-based frying pan to a depth of 3cm and heat over medium-high to 180°C. No thermometer? A pinch of flour should sizzle steadily on contact — if it browns instantly, the oil's too hot and the coating will scorch before the chicken cooks through.
6. Lift each chicken strip from the buttermilk, dredge in the seasoned flour, dip briefly back into the buttermilk, then dredge in the flour a second time. Press firmly so the coating clings in shaggy, craggy patches — that's where the crunch lives.
7. Fry the strips in batches of four or five — don't crowd the pan. Too many at once and the oil temperature crashes, the coating goes greasy instead of crisp, and you've stewed the chicken in its own steam. Cook for 4–5 minutes a side until deep golden and blistered, with no pink at the thickest part. Lift onto a wire rack set over a tray — never kitchen paper, or the undersides go soggy.
8. Taste a corner of one strip. Adjust now — a pinch more flaky salt while they're hot is the difference between good and great. Do this at the rack, not at the table.
9. Pile the chicken strips onto a board, scatter the chopped parsley over the top, press flaky sea salt onto each piece, and tuck the lemon wedges in alongside for squeezing — the citrus cuts straight through the fried richness. Serve with the slaw, the honey mustard dip, brioche buns, hot skin-on fries and dill pickles ready to stack.