The Best Tennessee Tenders

For our guest recipe submission number 2, Carter has shared his amazing Tennessee Tenders!! Not only do these look amazing, but when he posted this picture on our Facebook page, several people begged for the recipe. Well……here it is!! Thank you so much Carter for sharing this fabulous recipe, I cannot wait to try it!!

Tennessee Tenders are chicken tenderloins I smoke for my wife’s Sunday School Class. I enjoy bringing these to their Annual Christmas gathering because everyone loves them.

Ingredients :

Chicken Tenderloins
Rub (I use Weber’s Kickin Chicken & Chicken n Ribs)
Restaurant Style (thin) bacon
Salted butter
Wood Chips (I use Apple)

How to make it :

Coat each side of the tenders with rub. (I coat each side with a different rub from above)
Wrap each tender with a slice of bacon (Sam’s has a 10lb box of restaurant style bacon. The slices are separated and on wax paper. They are easy to peel off. Your bacon does not need to be frozen. You like a little stretch to it. It freezes well too)
Get you smoker to 300 degrees. Put your tenders on the smoker.
Add some chips to the fire.
Smoke your tenders at 250-300 degrees.
Flip the tenders after an hour.
They are done when the tenders reach 165 degrees.
Slather them with a generous helping of butter.
They hold well in the smallest cooler they will fit.
I rinse my cooler with real hot water before putting the tenders into it.