This dish was inspired by Pinterest and one of my favorite but closed (boo) restaurants in Chattanooga, Blacksmith’s.  Blacksmith’s was in walking distance from my home and boyfriend and I often walked there on the weekends for dinner and drinks. So sad to find out they were closing their doors.  So, to try and pay some type of homage to Blacksmith’s, I replicated one of my favorite dishes there: chicken strips with sweet potato hash and a jalapeño tomato jam. Yum! I used a mixture of techniques to make this dish. For the hash, I found a fantastic recipe on Pinterest that I tweaked a bit and for the chicken I used the same recipe (more or less) that I used for my chicken and waffle sandwiches.  Remember those?  So delicious.  The jam…well, I ‘ll share that recipe with you on Friday; I don’t want to overwhelm you with information.

Sweet Potato Hash – adapted from Hungry Girl Por Vida
2 sweet potatoes, peeled & cut into small cubes
1 large onion, halved and chopped
1 1/2 tbsp. Cajun seasoning
Black pepper to taste
Pinch of salt
Olive oil

Drizzle some olive oil in a large skillet and heat.  Add potatoes, onions and the remaining seasonings.  
Cook until potatoes are browned just a bit and softened. Keep an eye on them; you don’t want them to burn.

Chicken Strips
2 chicken breasts cut into strips
Buttermilk
Sriracha (optional)
1 cup of flour
1 tsp. of salt
1 tsp. of Cajun seasoning
1 tsp. of black pepper
Canola oil

Soak chicken in buttermilk and sriracha for at least an hour. If you can soak the chicken all day, that’ll be even better.

Combine flour and all dry ingredients.

Now for the fun part: one by one, take the chicken strips out of buttermilk and dip in flour, back in buttermilk then back in flour again. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. It makes all the difference in the world – trust me.

Fry the chicken in heated canola oil until nice and golden; set aside once done.

To plate the dish:
Place a serving of sweet potatoes in a bowl, top with chicken, tomato jam (recipe coming soon) and dried parsley for garnish.