20-Minute Tahini Fried Chicken

Without a doubt, this is an exceptional tahini fried chicken cutlet recipe.

Fried chicken is my guilty pleasure and always a crowd-pleaser. It can also be time-consuming especially if it involves brining the chicken in buttermilk for a day and using a deep fryer with tons of oil. I believe there’s a time and place for involved recipes.  Thankfully, and because I’m feeling lazy, this is not that kind of recipe. But it still delivers an amazing flavor in a short amount of time.

The recipe is adapted from Mark Bittman’s 15-minute fried herbed chicken. The coating is more fragile compared to other fried chicken recipes but the flavor is fantastic.

Normally I use regular onions but since it’s spring, I let the season guide me at the farmer’s market. I thought I bought spring onions but, after doing some research, I realized it was something else instead. We bought what was marked as green onions but it didn’t look like your typical scallion. It looked more like a young leek or an overgrown scallion. Nevertheless, it still had that great onion flavor but in a milder form. I’m so curious now and kicking myself that I didn’t carefully investigate so I’ll have to go back to the vendor and inquire about the specific varietal we bought. I’ll report back if I’m successful. In any case, you can’t go wrong no matter what type of onion you use.

The majority of the cost in this recipe is the chicken so you can definitely bring your total down if you purchase the chicken on sale or at a special price. Overall, it’s still pretty cost-effective and will feed the both of us for a few more meals during the week.

What makes this fried chicken so amazing, in my opinion, is the combination of tahini and onion mixture used for the coating. It’s a brilliant idea and adds a depth of flavor in no time. You’ll want to make this again and again because it’s delicious and it only takes 20 minutes to make!