Crispy Rice Chicken Strips (Sal-Sal Chicken)

Mix the honey mustard ingredients together and keep in the fridge until ready to use. You can make this ahead of time- it will stay good in the fridge a few weeks.

Mix together seasoned salt, pepper, & garlic powder. Reserve 1 tsp of this seasoning mix to add to the rice/panko breading. Use the rest to season the chicken.

Pound your chicken breast to an even thickness, as much as you can.

Cut your chicken breast or tenders into strips, about the same thickness as a quarter (coin). Season with 1.5 tsp of the seasoning mix. Set aside.

Pour 3/4 cup of Mahatma® Rice Ready to Heat Rice into a food processor to break down the rice grains a little. Pulse 4 or 5 times until you get the right consistency- you want broken little pieces but careful not to turn it into a powder-like consistency.

Combine the panko with the processed rice, plus the remaining seasoning (1 tsp).

Lightly coat the chicken in all-purpose flour

Then coat the chicken in egg

Roll into the seasoned rice/panko breading. The trick here is to gently roll until evenly coated- refrain from trying to pack it in tightly, or the rice grains will not stick as well. The key is to make sure you have a nice even coating of the egg so that as much rice/panko breading will stick.

Bring the oil to 360 degrees (use a thermometer for this!), then fry the chicken strips a few at a time (do not over crowd) for 3-4 minutes or until golden brown. They do not need that much time since they are thin strips. Careful not to overcook! And make sure the temp doesn't get lower than 340 degrees.

Rest on a cooling rack while you work on the rest of the strips

Clean the oil before working on the next batch. If you don't clean these bits out, they will burn and attach to your chicken strips.