Coconut Chicken Tenders with Sweet Chili Dipping Sauce

For my sister-in-law's baby shower, quite a long time ago, I made a coconut chicken tender appetizer with a sweet chili dipping sauce. I got a lot of positive feedback that day and I got rave reviews again when I prepared it for dinner! While I did fry these up, they can be baked. I'll definitely bake them next time to try and cut out some fat and calories.

My son said grace and then dug right in and didn't say a word all throughout dinner until it was time to eat his vegetables. That was a huge thumbs up for me! My husband liked the crunchy coating (why wouldn't he? it's panko). He liked that the coconut was flavorful but not overwhelming. He called these "adult chicken tenders". I guess that is a good thing. ;)

Ingredients

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut diagonally into strips
2 large eggs
1/4 cup coconut milk (optional)
1/2 cup AP or whole wheat flour
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1/2 tsp salt
1/2+ cup vegetable oil
sweet chili sauce for dipping

Directions

1. Cut each breast into approximately 6 strips, diagonally.

2. Take two ziploc bags, one for dredging and the other for breading. In the first bag combine the flour and salt. In the second bag, together the panko bread crumbs and shredded coconut. In a bowl, combine the eggs and coconut milk. Whisk together until well combined.

3. Place 1/4+ cup of vegetable oil in a large heavy duty skillet and heat over medium/high heat until hot.

4. While the oil is heating, toss chicken into the first bag of flour & salt. Then dip the strips into the eggs/coconut milk and finally toss the chicken into the second bag of panko & coconut.

5. After breading the strips, the oil should be hot enough. Place about 1/2 the strips in the pan at once. There should only be one layer in the pan and there should be about an inch between each strip. If you over crowd the pan it will get too cold and the strips will soak up a lot of oil instead of frying. Fry the strips for 2-3 minutes on each side or until they are golden brown and crispy. Place them on a plate with paper towel to drain and move on to the next batch. After a couple of batches you may need more oil so you can add the second 1/4 cup to the pan. Allow the oil to come up to temperature before frying the next batch (2-3 minutes). Because the strips are thin, they should be cooked through by the time both sides are browned. You can tell by the texture of the chicken; it should be stiff when pressed. If you cut your strips thicker, you will need to bake off the chicken after frying to make sure the insides are cooked through.

6. When all of the strips are done frying, serve immediately with sweet chili sauce to dip in.

**These baked up really nicely at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes.

Adapted from:

http://budgetbytes.blogspot.com/2010/01/coconut-chicken-w-sweet-chili-sauce-691.html

Country Chicken Casserole

When my husband was a bachelor he didn't do a lot of cooking. I guess he still doesn't. When we married and merged everything from bank accounts to CDs I had to go through his small stack of cookbooks. They were literally all Campbells cookbooks. As a bachelor he needed super simple recipes with super simple directions such as open a can of soup, add chicken, bake. Here is one of the recipes I found on the Campbell's website. Do you think it turned out well? Yes, yes it did...especially after tweeking a few ingredients to suit my liking. I've adapted the recipe to reflect ingredients that I like to cook with.

My husband really liked this meal and was excited that there was left-overs. My preschooler wasn't thrilled the first night I served it. He wanted the corn picked out. The next night he eagerly ate the left-overs, corn and all. Definitely an easy winner that I'll make again next month.

Ingredients

1 can cream of celery soup
1 can cream of chicken soup ( or potato)
1 cup milk
1/4 tsp dried thyme leaves, crushed
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
4 cups cooked cut-up vegetables
2 cups cubed cooked chicken (or turkey)
-sprinkle with poultry seasoning for extra flavor
2 cups Herb Seasoned Stuffing Mix

Directions

1. Stir together first 7 ingredients in a 3-quart shallow baking dish. Top with stuffing.
2. Bake at 400F for 25-35 minutes or until the stuffing is golden brown.

*I just used 2 chicken breasts and a bag of mixed vegetables. I didn't actually measure those ingredients out. I also didn't measure the stuffing mix. I just sprinkled on a liberal amount.

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.

Tuxedo Sesame-Crusted Chicken

Now that I feel almost human again (I can bend over) after giving birth just over 6 weeks ago, I've gotten back into the swing of cooking. My energy level has returned from zero and I was finally able to fill out my dinner menu calendar for the month of December. I had abandoned it back in March while I was in my first trimester and sleep, or at least being horizontal, overrode everything. I think we ate nothing but pasta for three months. I may not follow my dinner calendar to the date but that's okay. I had planned this meal to following a Boxing Day meal of left overs. I moved this to tonight since I didn't have all of the necessary ingredients for the meal I had "planned" for tonight. I'm behind on grocery shopping and laundry. That's the story of my life.

So this recipe is brought to us by the creative people at McCormick, the spice company. I've prepared this once before but I forgot how easy it is to make, or else I'd make it every month. I even made organic chicken tenders using this recipe for my son. This time I made it smarter and will use my "smarts" to make my life easier in the future. After you read or skip over reading the ingredients and directions, I'll tell you what I did differently and then give you my family's feedback.

Ingredients 1 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)

3 tablespoons Sesame Seeds

3 tablespoons Sesame Seeds, Black

1 egg

1 teaspoon Garlic Powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon Red Pepper, ground cayenne

1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast halves, pounded to 1/2-inch thickness

3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided

Directions

1. Mix bread crumbs and sesame seeds in shallow dish. Beat egg, garlic powder, salt and red pepper in separate shallow dish. Dip chicken in egg mixture. Coat evenly on both sides in bread crumb mixture, pressing firmly so mixture adheres to chicken. Discard any remaining egg and bread crumb mixtures.

2. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in large nonstick skillet on medium heat. Add chicken; several pieces at a time; cook 5 minutes per side or until chicken is browned and cooked through. Repeat with remaining chicken, adding remaining oil if needed.
--
So I failed to read the directions in their entirety before starting the preparation. I've failed to do this before and I've really screwed things up. Apparently I didn't learn from that experience, but it didn't matter this time. In fact, I found an easier way to do things.

In a gallon size plastic bag I mixed the bread crumbs and all of the spices. I didn't add the garlic powder, salt or red pepper to the beaten egg. It just went into the bag. In fact, I completely forgot to add salt. Oops. It's such a necessary ingredient that isn't all that necessary in this dish. I dredged the chicken in the egg and then tossed it directly into the bag with the breadcrumbs and spices. I tossed it around like shake-n-bake. I know I'm not the first person to every do this, but I know how awesome the first person felt when they did it! Pure genius! No messy hands, no bowl full of gooey mixture on a plate. When I was done I just tossed the bag out.

I cooked the chicken as directed, for 5 minutes each side. I didn't cut it open to check it.

The first comment my husband made after trying it was, "this is really juicy"! Yay! I didn't dry it out. He proceeded to give me a critique much like that given by the judges on Chopped (my favorite tv show). He asked what the little kick was. Red pepper I told him. He said it was just enough to give it a little something.

The real test came when my son was told to try it. He finished off his haricot vert like it was Nutella, doing everything he could to avoid this "new" chicken. He was so hesitant to try the chicken, even though he got to shake the spices and breadcrumbs together in the bag. He tried it, with ketchup of course. I think the photo says it all.

He learned to give a "thumbs up" tonight. :)

Cajun Chicken Pasta

I don't get every recipe I make from Allrecipes.com or Kraft.com or from my Mother-in-law, although most of them I do. Every once in a while I'll find them in an advertisement for a particular item. For example, this recipe for Cajun Chicken Pasta came from a Sargento cheese ad, although I've made it without their cheese.

Not every recipe I try is a winner and then some are and I mess them up. This is one of those recipes. I first prepared this recipe back in...I can't remember and it really doesn't matter. It's been a while and I liked it the first time so I decided to make it again.

After cooking the pasta and cooking the chicken, I remembered that the last time I made it I felt like the amount of cajun seasoning the recipe called for didn't seem like enough, so I decided I'd double it. OOPS! Not a good idea on a couple of levels. First, deciding to double it was crazy. Maybe a tad more would've helped. Second, instead of adding a total of 4 TEAspoons, I used 4 TABLEspoons. Ya see my problem?

After preparing it almost according to the instructions and plating it up, photographing it and making sure it was still hot enough to be served, the family sat down to eat. BTW, I made myself a batch without chicken.

O.M.G. AWFUL! The salt content was enough to make your tongue fall off. I was wiping sauce off the pasta and trying to make it edible. My husband was so hungry he ate it even though he thought the salt was too much too. And, my son, who we're trying to get to eat new things, was told it was a PB&J night. I wouldn't let him near the stuff.

So...I will make this again after we have the sodium flushed from our bodies and next time I will follow the recipe exactly and if there's not enough seasoning, I'll just sprinkle a little on top.

Since I've made this before, I will recommend it, but I will not be adapting this recipe anytime soon!

http://www.sargento.com/recipes/1260/cajun-chicken-pasta/

Slow Cooker Tex-Mex Chicken

Using the crock pot is so easy with just a little bit of planning (making sure you have all of the ingredients and getting it started on time). I love cooking with the crock pot because dinner is virtually taken care of by late morning. If I worked full-time I'd probably be on the look out for recipes that take 10 hours to cook. But since I don't, a 5-7 hour cooking time works for me.

I'm always a bit weary about cooking chicken in the slow-cooker because I've read so many recipe reviews where people comment that the chicken was over cooked, usually in a "beyond shredded" way vs. a dry way. But I decided to give this one a shot since I had plenty of bell peppers on hand and some cilantro to use.

I slightly adapted a Kraft website recipe...

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch-wide strips 2 Tbsp. (1/2 of 1-1/4-oz. pkg.) Taco Seasoning Mix 2 Tbsp. flour 1 each green and red pepper, cut into 1-inch-wide strips 1 cup frozen corn 1 can black beans 1-1/2 cups Medium Salsa 1 cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese TOSS chicken with taco seasoning and flour a ziploc bag then empty into slow cooker. Stir in vegetables and salsa; cover with lid. COOK on LOW 6 hours (or on HIGH 3 hours). STIR just before serving; top with shredded cheese. I served it with brown rice and garnished it with fresh cilantro. The first time I made this my husband commented that it needed a little extra kick, so I used medium salsa this time and that seemed to do the trick. My son asked for more chicken and he ate the peppers without a struggle! We're making progress!

Crunchy Chicken Fingers

It seems as though every night is a struggle to get my son to eat something different. The cost of buying him organic chicken tenders really adds up quickly. In an attempt to get him to eat chicken tenders that I make, so that I know exactly what's in them, I decided to try a Parents Magazine recipe. If it's in a Parents Magazine and its a recipe for children, it's gotta be good, right?

This recipe was easy enough to make. A little dredging here and little tossing there and into the oven it goes. After that it went onto a plate with every child's favorite condiment - ketchup. Do you think he ate it? No. Did I try to entice him by mentioning it was rolled in cereal? Yes. Did my enticing work? No. After spending two hours in the kitchen making dinner (chicken tenders, a casserole and sweet potato chips), I wasn't going to make a PB & J. Eat it or go to bed hungry. Mommy is done playing restaurant every night.

My husband ate the chicken tenders and he really liked them. I'll be sure to keep this recipe handy and maybe, one day, my little one will eat some homemade chicken tenders.

http://www.parents.com/recipe/chicken/crunchy-chicken-fingers/

Chicken Broccoli Divan Casserole

First off, why does the word "casserole" look so strange to me? Isn't it weird when a common word looks so uncommon?

It seems to me that casseroles are easy to make and can spare me from cooking dinner two nights in a row or I can freeze portions for a quick home-cooked meal on another night. I try to make dishes like this for my husband on the nights that I work. He needs something that requires no prep and little work on his part. I assemble the casserole and leave him a note with the baking time and temp. With casseroles that I make exclusively for him, I put in things I don't eat so that he can eat things he enjoys. ie) chicken and broccoli. I've adapted this from a recipe I found online. I don't use butter in casseroles. I always substitute brown rice instead of white. I always use as many organic ingredients as possible.

Chicken Broccoli Divan

4 cups steamed broccoli florets
1 1/2 cups cubed cooked chicken (approx 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts)
1 can organic Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
whole wheat panko breadcrumbs, enough to cover

-Place the broccoli and chicken into a 9-inch pie plate.
-Stir the soup and milk in a small bowl. Pour the soup mixture over the broccoli and chicken.
-Sprinkle with the cheese.
-->I just mix all of the ingredients together and sprinkle with the breadcrumbs.
-Sprinkle the bread crumbs mixture over the cheese.
-Bake at 450°F. for 20 minutes or until the chicken mixture is hot and bubbling.