Panko Chicken Nuggets and Homemade Ketchup: A Not-So Oscar-Worthy Snack

For whatever reason, every food blog that I follow has been saying that popcorn is THE snack for the Oscars this year. Well, I say no to that. Mostly because I had a hunger much stronger than any popcorn could satisfy. So, I decided that the only option was chicken. Chicken breaded in Panko crumbs and then fried. And of course, it had to be accompanied by ketchup, because I'm not crazy. In an attempt to make myself feel less guilty, I made my own homemade ketchup. It was the first time I'd ever tried it, and let me tell you, it was worth it. Nobody really cared what my predictions were for the Oscars (mostly because I hadn't seen any of the movies), but everybody was waiting with bated breath to see what I put on their plates for dinner tonight.

Chicken Tenders, Mid-Fry

Finished Ketchup, after 2 hours of Simmering

This meal is decently easy to make. The only trouble is that the ketchup takes 2+ hours to make, so you either need to make sure you cleared enough time out of your day, or just make it in advance (which is totally doable). For me, I made it today, because it's Sunday, and what else did I have to do? Nothing, I had nothing else to do. I actually decided extremely last-minute to make the ketchup. and luckily I had all the ingredients I needed. I started off by sweating chopped red onion and garlic in sunflower seed oil and salt, and then adding a chopped red chili pepper to sautee a bit with them.

After a few minutes, I added tomato paste, vinegar, sugar, molasses, water, lemon juice, and a mixture of ground spices.

I combined all the ingredients with a stir or two, waited until it boiled, and then reduced heat to low and let it simmer for two hours. The ketchup cooks down so much in that time, it's ridiculous. It probably ended up being one quarter of what the pot started with.

After the simmering and the considerable reduction, I blended the mixture with my immersion blender, and it was finished! Like I said, super easy, even if it did take a few hours.

The ketchup was time consuming, yet easy. The chicken was very quick to make, but much more hands-on. So hands-on that I found my fingers coated in buttermilk and Panko. It was worth it though.

I started with my 1.5 lb container of chicken tenderloins, which I cut in half to make the nuggets more nugget sized. I then seasoned both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper, making sure to wash my hands before I touch the pepper mill and salt pig.

Raw Chicken, Super Cute!

 After seasoning the chicken, I grabbed three soup bowls, and filled one with flour, one with buttermilk, and one with Panko. It's hard to determine how much you're going to need of each of those things, so it's good to start off with small amounts and keep the containers of extra close by, so as not to waste anything.

 The coating process for the chicken is easy: flour first, then buttermilk, then Panko, and finally the pan. Make sure to pour the olive oil (or sunflower seed oil, or your preferred oil) in the pan and heat it before adding the chicken. Cook the chicken until golden on both sides (turning over mid-fry so that both sides have a chance to become golden), and make sure there is no pink on the inside.

 We only want delicious white on the inside. After the chicken is done cooking, pile it all on a plate, sit down with your friends, and enjoy it dipped into some of your fresh ketchup! There will be lots of leftover ketchup, so make sure to store it in a secure container, so you can enjoy it for the next few days. Thanks for reading! #elkinthekitchen

Homemade Ketchup

Ingredients
1/2 red onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 red chili pepper, seeds in, diced
1/4 cup sunflower seed oil
3 tsp salt
1 sprig thyme
1 pinch black peppercorns
1 pinch fennel seeds
1 pinch coriander seeds
14 oz tomato paste
1.5 cups water
1 cup apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp molasses
1/2 cup sugar
Juice of 1 lemon

Directions
1. Sweat onion and garlic in sunflower oil in salt for 2-3 minutes. Add diced pepper, and cook for a minute or two longer.
2. Grind thyme, peppercorns, fennel, and coriander. Add the spice mix, tomato paste, water, vinegar, molasses, sugar, and lemon to the pot with the sweating vegetables, and stir once or twice to combine.
3. Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce to low and let simmer for two hours. The ketchup will reduce considerably, and thicken up very nicely.
4. After two hours of simmer, use an immersion blender to blend the ketchup into a smooth mixture. If you don't have an immersion blender, you and blend in a blender in small batches. If worse comes to worst and you don't have any type of blender, the ketchup will still be delicious without it.
5. Enjoy with a burger, fries, chicken nuggets, or anything else you would like!

Panko Chicken Nuggets

Ingredients
1-2 lbs chicken tenderloins
1-2 cups buttermilk
1-2 cups flour
2 cups Panko
1/4 cup olive oil or sunflower seed oil

Directions
1. Cut tenderloins into halves or quarters, in order to make them more nugget-sized (it's more fun to eat them that way). Once cut, season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper. Make sure to wash your hands with soap before touching anything.
2. Grab 3 bowls and fill one with flour, one with buttermilk, and one with Panko. Coat all the nuggets with the flour first. Next, dip the flour-coated tenderloins into the buttermilk. Finally, coat the nuggets in the Panko crumbs.
3. Heat the oil in a medium-large frying pan. Once the oil is hot, place the tenderloins in the oil. Cook until golden brown on each side, and completely white on the inside (about 3-4 minutes per side). If you have to do your chicken in two batches, that is okay! I did mine in two batches.
4. Once fully cooked through, take the nuggets out of a pan, pile on a dish, and eat with your homemade ketchup.