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Tuesday, July 26, 2011

real fast food:: chicken strips




It is 5 o'clock, the banshees are hungry, you have limited time to make dinner and you want it to be healthy but fun so they will actually eat it.  Sound familiar? Before you stop at a fast food drive through, or even pop frozen chicken nuggets into the oven,  how about making your own chicken strips? Think it is too hard/messy/complicated? Think again! I make a version of these a few times a month and they are one of my kids' favorite meals. And they take about 15 minutes prep and 30 minutes to cook. If you prep your things in the morning, they would be even quicker. 

First, a big disclaimer. I never use a recipe to make these. They are different each time. I measured out what I used last time to write this post, but please, please improvise. As long as the basic proportions are there - you can really play around with this.

What you need
1/4 c whole wheat flour (or rye, or a ground up Wassa cracker, or some old bread)
1/2 c old fashioned oatmeal
handful of walnuts (or pecans or almonds)
scoop of chia seeds (or sesame, or poppy or none at all)
1t garlic powder (or more if you like)
1/2 t old bay seasoning (more if you like, it is a little spicy so I have to hold back for my youngest)
any other seasoning or herbs you think you would like
salt/pepper to taste

1 egg
2 chicken breasts


What you do

Pop all the crust ingredients in a food processor and pulse until it is mealy (what makes this easy is that we just keep the food processor on the counter and toss it in the dishwasher after we use it - which is pretty much daily).

Crack an egg in a bowl and whisk it up with a fork.

Cut the chicken into strips. Cut against the grain for more tender strips. 

Throw the chicken in with the eggs and mix around to make sure it is all covered. 

Using one hand, take the chicken strips from the egg and coat it heavily with the crust mixture.

Place on a parchment covered cookie sheet.

Mist or drizzle with a little olive oil if you would like. 

Cook for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. I usually flip them over at some point during the last 10 minutes because I like them extra crispy and brown. 

 That is it! Healthy, yummy, do-able chicken strips for dinner. 

*A note about portions. This is what I cook for my family of five. Each person gets 2-3 strips, depending on how I cut it and how big the breast is. We usually eat it with a crazy big Caesar-like salad (and on occasion homemade fries). I want my kids to primarily fill up on greens and live vegetables; we treat animal protein like a side instead of the focus of most meals.  If you eat more meat, just multiply the recipe. 










3 comments:

  1. YUM! I watched a cooking show where they used oats with the chicken stripes and having mean to attempt to try and make them :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. oh wow! this looks like a GREAT chicken strips recipe!!! thanks!

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  3. Great recipe! Love the chia seeds!

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