Our Boneless Fried Chicken Recipe Is Slathered In Hot Honey Mustard

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Hot honey has been one of the biggest food trends in recent years. It's a spicy-sweet condiment that's been around since the 20-tweens, but somehow it just keeps getting more popular. It started out as a pizza topper, but has since found its way onto the Dunkin' breakfast menu, and KFC has partnered with popular hot honey brand Mike's to use it as a chicken topping, too. Recipe developer Kate Shungu was thinking along the same lines as KFC, but she added a little something extra: mustard. The sauce in this recipe is a mashup between hot honey and the ever-popular chicken dipper honey mustard.

Shungu says of her recipe, "There's just something special about freshly fried chicken, and this version is crispy, perfectly seasoned, and very tender. I love the contrast between the savory chicken and the hot/sweet honey sauce on top." Enjoy it fresh and hot from the fryer, but rest assured that the leftover cold fried chicken will be equally delicious straight out of the fridge.

For the fried chicken, you'll need boneless, skinless chicken breasts, buttermilk, flour, cornstarch, baking powder, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, salt, and vegetable oil. To make the hot honey, simply combine honey with Louisiana-style hot sauce. Once you add some Dijon mustard, you'll have your chicken dipping (or drizzling) sauce.

Stir the buttermilk, 1 teaspoon salt, and chicken in a medium bowl. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or up to 8 hours.

Heat the oil in a large cast iron skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat until the end of a wooden spoon sizzles when you dip it into the oil.

Whisk the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, and 2 teaspoons of salt in a shallow bowl.

Take a piece of chicken out of the buttermilk marinade and let the excess marinade drip off. Coat the chicken on both sides with the flour mixture.

Repeat with the remaining chicken.

Gently place 2–3 pieces of chicken into the hot oil. Fry for 4–5 minutes on one side.

Flip and fry for an additional 2–3 minutes, or until golden brown all over.

Repeat with any remaining chicken.

While the chicken is cooking, whisk together the honey, hot sauce, and Dijon mustard.

Drizzle the hot honey over the freshly fried chicken, and serve right away.

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Chicken should be fried at a temperature between 325 F and 375 F. As Shungu explains, "Any lower and the chicken won't crisp up. If it's higher, you run the risk of the outside burning before the chicken is cooked all the way through."

If you'll be frying the chicken in vegetable oil, keep the temperature at 350 F or below because some vegetable oils have a smoke point of 400 F and you should always pick an oil with a smoke point at least 50 degrees higher than the cooking temperature. Corn oil and soybean oil both have smoke points of 450 F, though, so they'll be safe even if you're frying at the higher end of the temperature range.

The best way to measure the oil temperature is to use a deep fry thermometer, and these can be purchased for under $10. If yours has gotten lost in the junk drawer, there are a few other methods to test if the oil's hot enough. If you stick a wooden spoon in the oil or toss in a pinch of flour, vigorous bubbling indicates it's ready for cooking. If you throw a popcorn kernel into the pot and it pops right away, the oil is hot enough to fry your chicken. 

This recipe calls for chicken breasts, but you can use thighs if you prefer how they taste. Another way to change up the flavor would be to tweak the heat level. Spice things up by adding cayenne or crushed red pepper to the hot honey, or make it milder by adding less hot sauce and replacing the lost volume with water. You could also add some smoky flavor by replacing standard paprika with the smoked kind.

Since this recipe is made with boneless chicken, it can easily be transformed into sandwiches. To duplicate the classic Chick-fil-A style, serve the chicken strips on brioche buns and top them with a few pickle slices. You could also add lettuce and tomato, or go all out with bacon and cheese. The hot honey mustard chicken can also be served with waffles to transform it into a brunch dish, while it becomes an easy appetizer if you chop each breast into pieces and sandwich them between biscuits, Hawaiian rolls, or slider buns.

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