Hey, everyone! This week I bring you Peach BBQ Sauce with Chicken Fingers! I rarely make fried chicken, but when I do, I like to dunk it in an amazing sauce. The Peach BBQ Sauce is sweet yet spicy, with a kiss of smokiness. The best part about this peach BBQ sauce you ask? I’ll tell you. The recipe is made with real peaches rather than peach preserves. As you dunk your fried chicken fingers into the Peach BBQ Sauce, rest easy knowing your eating real food deliciousness!
Today is National Fried Chicken Day. I figured a fried chicken recipe paired with an amazing BBQ sauce would be what the doctored ordered! Get ready to munch on Crispy Chicken Fingers dunked in a sweet and smokey Peach BBQ Sauce!
Did everyone have a good 4th of July? I sincerely hope so!
Besides munching on Peach BBQ Sauce with Chicken Fingers, Kieran and I worked on the house then explored the great outdoors.
See, the last 4th of July was crazy. Kieran and I moved from Chicago to Portland at the end of March 2015. The majority of our belongings were put into storage until we found a permanent place to live. Once we signed the lease to our new apartment in May 2015, we notified our moving company to deliver our stuff. 45 business days later the moving company finally arrived with our belongings.
Waiting 45 business days for our stuff to arrive was brutal. After moving into our new apartment we didn’t have dishes, pots or pans, towels, bed sheets, ect. Those essentials were on the moving truck so we wasted money purchasing those items again. To add insult to injury, the moving company occasionally told Kieran and I they were on their way, when in fact they weren’t!! The moving company would give us the truck drivers name and his estimated time of arrival. After waiting a few days we would call the driver to find out which state he was in, only to find our belongings weren’t on his truck!
I’m an easy going person by nature, but the moving company fiasco pushed me over an emotional edge. I was livid. The moving company contractually had 40 business days to make our delivery, since they missed the deadline by 5 days, I demanded a discount. The discount included money off each day the moving company was late and I refused to pay any extra money the delivery could cost us. For example, most moving companies will charge extra if the walk from their truck to your apartment door is so many extra feet. The discount I worked out, in writing, protected us from any additional delivery costs.
July 4, 2015, rolls around and we get a text from the moving company, our delivery would happen that day! Kieran and I cheered with glee as we anxiously awaited the delivery of our beloved stuff. The moving company arrived and immediately told us they wouldn’t unload our stuff until we paid extra delivery charges. The distance from the moving truck to our front door was over the allotted footage.
I saw red.
I went batshit, I went apeshit, I went ALL the shits on the truck driver. We argued back and forth for 20 minutes, me becoming more pissed each passing second. I had PROOF in writing we wouldn’t accrue additional charges, yet the truck driver argued against it. It wasn’t until I actually started to dial 911 – to report the moving company was holding our stuff hostage – that the truck driver relented.
On July 4, 2015, our belongings were finally in our possession, safe and sound.
The moving company finished delivery around 7 pm. Kieran and I felt elated yet exhausted, emotionally and physically. Too drained to exert energy to find local fireworks, Kieran and I opted to stay home, drink rum, and be one with our stuff. 4th of July will forever be known as the day American gained its independence from Great Britain, and our stuff gained its independence from the moving company. 😀
Fast forward one year later Kieran and I, excited our moving debacle was behind us, eagerly planned a fun 4th of July weekend. We packed the weekend with fun house projects, hiking, seeing friends, and eating amazing food, like the Peach BBQ sauce with Chicken Fingers!
Before I talk about the food, I want to show you a picture we took during our epic 4-hour hike. Kieran and I climbed the Tom, Dick, and Harry range for spectacular views of Mt. Hood. We were, and will continue to be, struck dumb by the beauty of the Pacific Northwest. Simply Breathtaking.
Now let’s talk about Peach BBQ Sauce with Chicken Fingers!! Yay!!! Food times!!!
We Americans adore our ketchup based BBQ sauces throughout the summer. It’s fun to change it up and make BBQ sauce out of peaches instead. I researched other Peach BBQ recipes I found 2 common ingredients: peach preserves/jam and ketchup. Preserves and ketchup are commonly loaded with high fructose corn syrup, bleh! I didn’t want to develop a recipe using either of those two ingredients.
The recipes which used real peaches require you to blanch the fruit in order to peel off its skin. Blanching fruit isn’t difficult but I wanted my recipe to be easier, so I chose frozen peaches instead. For my Peach BBQ Sauce and Chicken Finger recipe, you simply thaw the frozen peaches overnight and they’re ready to use!
So using frozen peaches eliminated the need for peach preserves, my next step was eliminating the ketchup. Doctoring up tomato paste with natural sweeteners was how I added a rich ketchup-y taste to the peach BBQ sauce using natural ingredients.
The Peach BBQ Sauce is versatile too. You can use it as a dipping sauce for chicken fingers or a regular BBQ sauce for grilled chicken or pork!
I love booze so I added a 1/4 cup of bourbon to the sauce. I think the bourbon gave the recipe a wonderful boost in flavor, but omit the liquor from the recipe if you wish.
People who are vegan can swap another sweetener for the honey, then enjoy the sauce on their favorite vegetables.
If you’re not vegan, paring the Peach BBQ Sauce with Chicken Fingers is the way to go.
Speaking of chicken fingers…
True confession time – I SUCK at making fried chicken. I either don’t have the oil hot enough, so the breading on the chicken falls off, or the oil is too hot and scorches the breading. I adapted Chef John’s recipe for chicken fingers so I could learn how to make them properly.
One trick I learned when making chicken fingers is letting the chicken rest for 15 minutes after coating it in breadcrumbs. The rest time allows the surface of the chicken to dry out, so the breading adheres better. Chef John’s technique worked wonderfully for me. I did need to adjust my oil temperature if the chicken was cooking too fast or too slow, but after a couple small batches the chicken turned out amazingly crispy.
BBQ sauce and summertime go together like a lock and key, a wine bottle and corkscrew, or Hillary Clinton and corruption.
If you’re craving BBQ but want to add a fun twist, try using peaches this time around! The taste will pleasantly surprise you!
Thanks for stopping by,
Christina
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 jalapeño, minced (you decide if you want to keep the seeds for extra heat)
- ½ cup sweet onion, minced
- 1 lb frozen peach slices, thawed
- ⅛ teaspoon dry mustard
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- ⅓ cup cider vinegar
- ¼ cup honey (or another sweetener if you're vegan)
- ¼ cup bourbon (optional)
- 2½ tablespoons molasses
- 2½ tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- Dash of cinnamon
- Small pinch of ground cloves
- 1 capful of liquid smoke
- ½ teaspoon grated fresh ginger (optional)
- 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest (optional)
- Squeeze of lemon juice (optional)
- 3 large skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into equal size strips
- 1 cup flour
- 2½ teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon chipotle pepper
- ½ teaspoon white pepper
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 1 tablespoon buttermilk
- 1 box panko bread crumbs (you may not use all the crumbs, but it's good to have them handy, just in case)
- Canola or Vegetable oil for frying
- Heat olive oil In a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat.
- Add the garlic and stir until it becomes fragrant, approx 30 seconds.
- Add the onion and jalapeño. Sweat the onion and jalapeño for approx 5 minutes, or until they become soft and the onion translucent, stirring occasionally.
- Now add the remaining BBQ sauce ingredient list but stop before you get to the lemon zest and lemon juice, you'll add those later. Stir until the ingredients are well combined.
- Bring the sauce to a boil, then simmer for 30 minutes.
- Dump the sauce into a blender, food processor, or use an immersible blender to blend the sauce for a smooth, sauce consistency. Once the sauce is smooth enough for your liking, dump it back into the saucepan, and place the pan back on the stove.
- Taste the sauce - at this time I added a little lemon zest and lemon juice to brighten the flavors. Adjust the salt, heat (with hot sauce or red pepper flakes), smokiness (using more liquid smoke), and sweetness (with more honey or brown sugar) to your liking. Keep warm on the stove.
- Line a cookie sheet (or 2) with tin foil and top with a drying rack. Set aside until needed.
- In a large plastic bag add the flour, salt, garlic powder, chipotle and white pepper. Shake until the ingredients are well combined. Then dump all of the chicken into the plastic bag. Carefully shake and move the plastic bag around until the raw chicken is completely coated in flour.
- In a large bowl whisk together the eggs and buttermilk. Once combined, dump the entire contents of the chicken coated with flour into the wet ingredients. Using your hands or a spoon, gently mix everything together so the flour coated chicken is now completely coated in the wet ingredients.
- Spill the panko crumbs onto a large platter or plate. Using your hands or tongs, coat the chicken with the crumbs, then carefully place them onto the drying rack. If you use a large enough plate, you can coat several pieces of chicken with crumbs at once. Once all the chicken has been coated in panko crumbs, set a timer for 15 minutes. You want the chicken to dry out a little so the breading adheres better.
- When the chicken has about 5 minutes to go, heat your frying oil in a large skillet. I used an inch of oil and turned the chicken throughout cooking. You can use more oil if you want your chicken fingers to be completely submerged in the oil while it cooks.
- Once your oil reaches 350 degrees you can start frying.
- Fry the chicken in batches to maintain the oil temperature. After a few minutes, if the breading on my chicken was golden brown, I would flip the chicken over with tongs and continue cooking on the other side. Adjust the temperature of the oil if your chicken or breading is burning or not browning. Once the chicken is fully cooked, pluck the chicken fingers from the oil, and place on a paper-lined plate to drain.
- Once all the chicken is done you can serve with the Peach BBQ Sauce for dunking!
The Peach BBQ Sauce can be made several days ahead.
I know I typically offer calorie breakdowns with my recipe, but this recipe was difficult to offer that. The calories depend on how much sauce you consume, how much bread crumbs you use, how many chicken fingers you consume. Calorie counting for this particular recipe was tough for me and since I’m not a nutritionist I didn’t want to lead you astray.
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