Jalapeno Kettle Chip Crusted Chicken with Jalapeno Ranch

Cruising around the now wildly popular site Pinterest, I found this recipe that I thought might be nice to make for my husband. I thought it might be too spicy for my preschooler so I decided to skip making him the chicken tender version.

I read that the jalapeno ranch dipping sauce might be too hot, in combination with the chicken, for some people so I decided to make the sauce without the pickled jalapenos. I should've put them in. My husband enjoyed the chicken but didn't feel it had the jalapeno-kick that the title would imply. He thought it needed a little something extra. The chicken was moist on the inside and the coating was crunchy on the outside, but the unique flavor of the ingredients used were lacking. This is a recipe that I will try again, but I'll kick up the cayenne and include the pickled jalapenos next time.

Ingredients

For the Jalapeno Ranch Dipping Sauce:
1/4 cup mayo
1/4 cup lowfat sour cream
1/4 cup (plus 2 tablespoons) lowfat buttermilk
1 tablespoon Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing (the powder)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
dash of cayenne
5-6 hot pickled jalapeno slices, finely chopped

For the Chicken:
4 chicken breasts (about 1 3/4 - 2 pounds total)
1 bag Jalapeno Kettle Chips, crushed
1 cup low fat buttermilk
1 teaspoon salt
dash cayenne

Directions

For the Jalapeno Ranch Dipping Sauce:
Mix ingredients together (adding additional buttermilk until desired consistency). Refrigerate until ready to use.

For the Chicken:
Preheat oven to 375º. Place an oven safe cooling rack in a large jelly roll pan and spray with non-cooking spray. In a bowl, whisk together buttermilk, salt, and cayenne. As needed: pound out chicken breasts to roughly 1/2" thickness and add to buttermilk mixture (toss to coat well).

Place crushed Kettle chips in a shallow baking dish. Pull one piece of chicken at a time out of the buttermilk and gently shake to remove some of the excess. Dip into the chips and coat thoroughly on both sides. Place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat until all chicken breast are thoroughly coated.

Place into oven and bake for 25-35 minutes, until cooked through (cooking times vary based on chicken thickness and actual oven temperature). Serve hot with jalapeno ranch dipping sauce.

Pecan-Crusted Chicken Tenders

After making a dinner or two that my preschooler gave the "thumbs down" to, I decided to make something that I was sure he'd eat and my expectation was to have a frustration-free dinner.

This Pecan-Crusted Chicken Tenders recipe came out of a March 2008 copy of Southern Living Magazine. I've haven't made this recipe in the almost four years since I tore the page out of the magazine. I decided it was about time to try it.

This is another recent recipe that calls for me to dredge something. I'm so over dredging in a bowl that, once again, I pulled out my plastic bags instead. Every time my husband sees me shaking something in a bag he eyes me like he knows I'm thinking, "I'm so smart. Shaking this bag when others get messy using a bowl." He'd be right. I am thinking that every time I refuse to follow a recipe and dredge.

I altered the ingredients in the recipe since I didn't want to buy saltines and my husband has a recent preference for all things breaded in panko breadcrumbs. Another change I made was with the amount of paprika the recipe called for. It called for 2 tbs. Yikes! Seems like a lot. I only have hot paprika in the house, so I opted for only 1 tbs. Next time I'll be sure to get sweet paprika.

Note: Coating the chicken in flour will lock in moisture and the breadcrumb coating will add crispness.

The verdict? Well...the preschooler gave it the "thumbs down" and Daddy gave it the "thumbs up". I think this is what happened. I feed my child organic chicken and my husband gets the chicken laden with whatever organic chickens don't get. I keep them separate when I'm preparing a meal. I did my shake-n-bake move with my son's chicken first. Maybe I didn't shake the bag enough because his chicken definitely had more of the hot paprika on it than did my husband's. My husband had some of the spicier chicken and then I had extra chicken that I tossed in the bag with what was left over of the mixture and tossed in extra panko.

My husband liked the subtle kick that the paprika gave the chicken. He didn't pick up much of the pecan flavor though. Next time I make this recipe I won't grind up the pecans. I'll crushed them. He tried my son's chicken and said it was great, but maybe a bit too spicy for a 4-year old.

Ingredients (adapted)

1 1/2 cups panko breadcrumbs or 16 saltine crackers, crushed
1/4 cup pecans, ground (just finely chop them up)
1 tbs sweet paprika
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 egg
1 1/2# chicken tenders (I just used 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced into tenders)
1/4 AP flour (place in ziplock bag)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425F and mix first 5 ingredients together in a ziplock bag.
2. Whisk egg.
3. Place a wire rack on a baking sheet over parchment paper and spray rack with cooking spray.
4. Toss chicken in flour, dredge in egg (I wish I could do this in a bag too) and toss in breadcrumb mixture.
5. Arrange on wire rack and bake for 18-20 minutes, turning once half way through.

Breaded Baked Chicken

I'm on a roll! I've planned out all of our family dinners for the month of January and I haven't missed a day...haven't strayed off calendar. Not that straying would be awful. I should've made a New Years Resolution this year. If I had, this would be it, having a plan and sticking to it. It really makes my life so much easier. I know what to buy when I'm grocery shopping and I had an idea of when to start preparing dinner because I know what I'm going to make in advance. I must be the first Mom to ever do this! ;) It also means I'm not throwing together a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for my preschooler because I'm afraid he won't eat what I'm making or can't wait until I get it finished.

Tonight I went super simple with a breaded baked chicken recipe that I adapted from...Country Crock?! Sounds strange but the recipe is so simple that I had to give it a try. It does have one "questionable" ingredient. Butter. But, hey, can't always dredge in eggs. I also made a "kids tender" version for my son.

Ingredients

1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I used seasoned Panko)
3 tbs grated parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp garlic powder
3 each boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 tbs melted butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. Combine breadcrumbs, cheese and garlic powder. Dip chicken into melted butter, then in crumb mixture. Arrange chicken on a roasting pan.
3. Bake for 20 minutes.

I put the mixture in a plastic bag and then tossed the chicken inside. Super easy clean up. I also used pan spray on the roasting pan.

My husband, the "meat eater", really liked it. He liked it for the simplicity. He thought it was a nice light, healthy meal. I had to tell him the secret ingredient was butter. Not as healthy as it could've been. It doesn't use that much butter, but using an egg to dredge seems healthier.

My preschooler gave it the "thumbs up"! How could he not? Chicken tenders. Any way I prepare them he seems to like them.