These Protein-Packed Cutlets Were a Birthday Request

It’s That Simple is our series about recipes so easy, you can make them with your eyes closed. Think tiny ingredient lists, laid-back techniques, and results so delicious you’ll text home about them.

Here at the Bon Appétit test kitchen, birthdays are serious business. On a shared drive is a spreadsheet where each colleague lists their preferred treats the rest of us try to recreate. We’ve made gochujang and corn pizza, shrimp cocktail, three kinds of lasagna, and of course, lots of cake, including one shaped like a malfunctioning car clutch (don’t ask).

For my colleague Jesse Szewczyk’s big day, he wrote, “no baked goods…anything super savory.” And we knew just the thing. A few weeks earlier, in one of our brainstorm meetings, Jesse had raised the idea of chicken breasts breaded with crushed pork rinds, inspired by his perpetual quest for high-protein foods. So on his birthday I made him the chicharron-crusted chicken tenders of his dreams, piling them on a cake stand with a candle stuck in the center, because everyone needs cake on their birthday, even if it’s one made from chicken. He loved them, and so did everyone else.

If replacing breadcrumbs with crushed chicharrones sounds outrageous, well, sure. But it’s one of those things you have to try to believe. The pork rinds are fiercely savory, underpinning the cutlets with deep flavor, unlike neutral breadcrumbs. Surprisingly, they’re not overly greasy, and even when crushed, they retain their airy crunch. While I favor chicken tenders for their uniform size and ease of handling, you can easily swap in thinly sliced skinless, boneless chicken breasts.

And the options for how to eat them are endless: with a simple squeeze of lemon, sliced intro strips and draped over a green salad, stuffed into a sandwich, or placed over rice with a sticky sauce. These chicharron chicken tenders are the protein-packed gift that keeps on giving.