There's this food truck in Austin called The Mighty Cone that serves a tortilla in a paper cone filled with fried chicken strips and cole slaw. They fry everything in the same deliciously crispy breading made from what I think is corn flakes, sesame seeds, and almonds. They also have (or at least used to have) the most ah-mazing fried pickles because of it.
Tangential to the main post: aren't fried pickles the best thing ever? I personally prefer the spears as opposed to chips, but they're both great. I think it might be a southern thing, though I would assume that you could find at least one place in most major cities that serve them. If you've never had them before, you're missing out...go now!
More to the point: I don't make fried things very often, especially bite sized fried things. It's such a pain in the ass to dredge, egg, bread, and repeat 100 times over. Homemade chicken nuggets are something that I get requests for quite often, plus I love eating them as well, so every once in a while they make their way into my repertoire.
You could make these chicken nuggets with any type of breading. This time around I wanted to experiment and create something similar to Mighty Cone's chicken since I love them so much. Previously, I have made these using regular and panko breadcrumbs and they always turn out amazing. Whatever you choose to use, you can't go wrong.
Inspired by The Mighty Cone
Notes:
Depending on how small or large you cut your chicken pieces, you can adjust the amount of breading to make. I generally like fairly small nuggets, so I need the whopping 6 cups of cornflakes to make enough breading to coat them all, but if you're making chicken strips instead of nuggets, you may only need half that amount.
Serves 4 to 6.
Ingredients:
6 cups corn flakes
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
2 tsp plus 1/2 tsp salt, divided
1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp paprika
4 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 lb chicken breast
Canola or peanut oil for frying
Instructions:
Place the corn flakes, slivered almonds, sesame seeds and 2 tsp salt in a food processor. Pulse until mixture has the texture of rough breadcrumbs.
To set up your assembly line, mix flour and paprika on a large plate. Crack the eggs and mix with buttermilk in a wide bowl. Transfer cornflake mixture to another large plate. Set a final large, empty plate at the end for the finished breaded chicken.
Cut your chicken into bite sized pieces and sprinkle with 1/2 tsp of salt. In small batches, dredge the chicken in flour, dip in egg, coat in cornflake mixture, and transfer to the empty, clean plate.
On a counter next to your burner, place a cooling rack on top of a layer of paper towels.
In a medium heavy-bottomed skillet, heat up 1/4 to 1/2 inch of oil on medium high. When oil is shimmering and crackles when you flick in some water, it's ready. Test fry one piece of chicken. When you place it in, the oil should start to vigorously bubble around it. When the bottom is a nice golden brown, flip the chicken. It should take about 20 to 30 seconds each side depending on the size of your nuggets. Fry the rest of the chicken working in small batches so that the oil doesn't lose too much heat. Transfer each finished batch to the cooling rack to let drain.
Serve with your favorite sauce.