Mummy Aki Chicken Fingers Recipes

Steps:

• For the horns: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
• Spray 8 metal cream horn cones or sugar cones wrapped in foil with nonstick cooking spray. Cut the puff pastry into 8 even strips. Starting at the point of each cone, wind a pastry strip around the cone, overlapping the layers slightly to cover the cone with a spiral of pastry. Lightly brush the pastry with the egg wash and place the cones seam-side down on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Cool the pastry on the cones, then remove.
• For the filling: Whip the cream and confectioners' sugar with an electric mixer in a medium bowl until stiff peaks form. Transfer to a pastry bag and refrigerate until ready to use.
• For the icing: Combine the confectioners' sugar, butter, milk and salt in a small bowl and whisk until smooth. Transfer to a second pastry bag.
• To assemble: Pipe the whipped cream into each horn to fill. Dust with confectioners' sugar to coat. Dab some icing on the back of each eye and affix 2 eyes to each horn. Pipe the icing back and forth over each horn to resemble a mummy.

Steps:

• For the honey giardiniera butter: Add the butter, honey and salt to taste to a bowl and mix until smooth. Stir in the giardiniera until well blended. Refrigerate until ready to use.
• For the chicken: Add the chicken thighs, reserved giardiniera brine and pickle brine to a plastic zip-top bag and refrigerate overnight or for at least 2 hours.
• When ready to fry the chicken, fill a Dutch oven halfway full with oil and heat to 350°F.
• Set up a dredging station: Pour the buttermilk into a large bowl and in a separate large bowl, stir together the flour, cornstarch, paprika, salt, pepper and cayenne until well combined. Use your tongs to drizzle some of the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture.
• Remove 1 or 2 pieces of the chicken from the brine at a time and submerge in the buttermilk. Add 1 piece of the buttermilk-soaked chicken at a time into the flour mixture and turn to completely coat the chicken. Transfer to a plate and repeat until all the remaining chicken is well coated.
• Add the chicken to the hot oil in batches, 2 or 3 pieces at a time, and cook until brown and crispy, 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer the cooked chicken to a wire rack on a baking sheet to drain. Serve immediately with the giardiniera butter or let cool and store on a wire-rack on a sheet pan, lightly covered, in the fridge overnight. Serve at the picnic at room temp. Served with softened honey giardiniera butter.