Fried Chicken Strips

It's a long time past by now, but chicken strips was Anthony's birthday dinner.  I've never made fried chicken strips before, but for some strange reason, that was what he requested.  Lucky for him, his birthday is over the holiday season when we have lots of free time and we have a friend who explained in detail how to make them.

-Soak the chicken in buttermilk for 30 minutes (I didn't have buttermilk or milk, so I made milk out of water and powdered milk, then added vinegar.  It looked very strange, but seemed to work)
-Mix together the following:
Flour
Corn starch (as about 20% of the total amount of ingredients)
Salt
Pepper
Baking powder
Paprika
Powdered garlic
Powdered sugar (I would never have thought of that)
-Taste the mixture to make sure it tastes "right" (whatever that means for someone who is making it for the first time...)
-Coat the chicken in this dry mixture and set it aside in a pan
-Take some of the buttermilk from soaking the chicken and add it to the extra dry mix to make a crumbly mixture.  Press each piece of chicken into this on both sides before frying it
-Fry in oil in a skillet

This operation made a crazy mess of the stove and kitchen, but it turned out perfectly.  Anthony was happy and had a birthday celebration worthy of being called celebratory.