Chicken Tenders

I haven’t been good about posting in here lately; it seems there is always something else to do.  I suppose that’s how life is; priorities vary based on whatever is going on around you.  Things are busy and stressful here so I have made a conscious effort to do only what I can without jeopardizing my sanity and my health.

I had a busy weekend, we went to a concert Friday night (The Black Keys, amazing!), did a bunch of chores Saturday, Sunday we decided to go see Iron Man 3 (pretty good, left me wondering if there will be another).  When we got home I went to the kitchen and spent the rest of the day cooking and prepping food for the week. 

Today I thought I would share a recipe I came up with after looking through several online sources for ideas for “fried” chicken strips.  A friend had them at lunch the other day; they used to be a normal thing I would get at a restaurant before I went GF because they were generally hard to mess up.  I didn’t realize that I had been missing them until she ordered them.  So, on Saturday I was determined to have fried chicken tenders and I was going to figure out how to do it.  Never mind I haven’t ever deep fried anything in my life, amazing considering I have lived in the south for nearly 9 years.  Here’s the result of my chicken tender craving:

Chicken Tenders

Servings: 3-4

Ingredients:

1 lb. chicken breasts cut into “tenders” size pieces

½ C gluten free flour (I found the King Arthur brand at Kroger)

3 eggs

2 T milk (honestly, I used the half and half I have for coffee, I didn’t have milk)

1.5 C of ground up Corn Chex cereal (the GF kind!)

¼ C grated parmesan

1.5 tsp. salt

1.5 tsp. pepper

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. paprika

½ tsp. cayenne powder (you can omit this if you don’t like heat, or add more if you do!)

Hot sauce of your choice (I prefer Cholula)

Directions:

1.      Remove chicken from the refrigerator, season with 1 tsp. salt and pepper

2.      Put the flour along with ½ tsp. salt and pepper along with the garlic powder, paprika and cayenne powder into a dish, mix well

3.      Beat the eggs in another dish with whatever amount of hot sauce you would like

4.      In another bowl add the ground Chex cereal with the parmesan and mix well

a.       Note on the Chex cereal, to get it to the consistency of a panko breadcrumbs I just throw it into my mini chopper and pulse until it is the size I want

5.      Preheat oven to 300 degrees

6.      Heat the oil to 350 degrees in whatever you are frying in, I opted for a shallow fry in my electric skillet

7.      Start breading, drop the tenders into the flour, coat, then pick them up and shake the excess flour off and drop into the egg/milk mixture, when it is coated let the excess drip off them put into the cereal/parmesan mixture.

8.      As you bread each piece lay them out on a sheet or a plate, once everything is breaded start with the ones that you breaded first (the time allows the breading to stick better)

9.      Add several pieces into the hot oil one at a time, being sure to do it away from you so you don’t splash yourself with hot oil

10.  Cook for 6-8 minutes, turning once to ensure even browning (cooking time really depends on the size of your tenders, larger ones require longer, smaller a shorter time)

11.  When you remove it from the oil place on a cooling rack on a baking sheet in an oven that has been preheated to about 300 degrees, you can keep adding the chicken as you go, the oven will finish any cooking needed and keep everything warm

12.  The result should be a brown crispy coating with tender juicy chicken on the inside….it was just what I was craving! (And I didn’t burn down my kitchen, I was a little worried about that).

Happy Monday everyone!

Berry/Spinach Smoothie and Chicken Salad Made with Guacamole

First I have to mention that someone in the office brought in pizza for a lunch meeting, it’s all I can smell right now….OMG do I miss real pizza crust.  Ok, enough of that, it just had to be said.  I closed my office door but that wonderfully awful smell is finding a way to get in here!

Anyway, moving right along, I finally figured out last night that I can work out after work now that we are doing smoothies for dinner.  If I don’t have to cook I have lots of free time when I get home, yay!  I got on the treadmill, the first time in a while after being sick, etc. (you have already heard about it).  It felt SO good!  I didn’t move too fast but I cranked the incline up to 3 for 30 minutes, a little over a mile.  It’s kind of sad that I used to do two in 30 minutes, but I will get there again.  After that I did some arm work with my exercise band.  Yay, it felt great.  It really is a good stress reliever, and those endorphins always make you feel good when you are done.  I didn’t realize how much I was missing it.

I have a strange sounding combination of foods for you today.  It sounds really strange but both are good, just try them!  The first one was my smoothie creation last night.  I always try to work veggies into them because they are good for me J  Here’s my Berry-Spinach creation from last night:

Berry-Spinach Smoothie

Ingredients:

½ C nonfat plain Greek yogurt (I use Chobani)

1 C unsweetened vanilla almond milk

1 C frozen unsweetened berry mix

1 T raw agave syrup

1 T chia seeds

1.5 C fresh spinach

Directions:

1.      Put the berries in the bottom of the blender, add the yogurt, almond milk, agave syrup and top with spinach

2.      Start the blender on low, give it a chance to get into those frozen berries, then gradually increase the power until the spinach has been pulled down and blended into the mixture

3.      Turn off and taste, add sweetener if you want more (I don’t like it too sweet) and dump in the chia seeds, blend for about 30 seconds longer

4.      Pour into a large glass (and I do mean large, this makes a big smoothie), enjoy!

The second recipe is what I’m sitting here eating for lunch while I’m typing.  I came across the idea on Pinterest, I didn’t follow the recipe, I just kind of winged it based on the idea.  The recipe below is my version, and, if you love guacamole (the real, homemade kind) then you are going to love this one.  By the way, this makes a lot, for me it was two lunches.

Chicken Salad made with Guacamole

Ingredients:

1 avocado

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 T lime juice (I use a little more but I like that flavor)

Salt & Pepper to taste

2 cooked, chopped chicken breasts (about 6 oz. total) – I used a rotisserie chicken

½ C quartered grape tomatoes

2 scallions, chopped

Directions:

1.      Cut the avocado in half, dispose of the seed and scoop out into a bowl

2.      Squeeze a lime over the avocado, add the garlic powder and a little salt and pepper

3.      Mash the mixture with a fork until desired consistency (I like mine slightly lumpy) – this is the point where you should taste it for salt levels

4.      Add in the chicken, tomatoes and scallions and mix well

5.      Serve with crackers, your own baked tortilla chips or even on some GF bread

BTW, if you are eating GF and love crackers like I do make sure you try Mary’s Gone Crackers, they are GF and vegan and so darned delicious sometimes I just eat them without anything else.  They are great when I need something crunchy.  Kroger in my town carries them, actually they have several flavors.  I always reach for the original but the others are yummy too.  There is a store locator on their website, check them out if you can find them near you.

Chicken Fajitas and Pre-Made GF Foods

When I was first told that I had to start eating gluten-free I was pretty sure it was the end of the world.  I lived for good bread and loved pasta (no wonder I was so sick!).  After the initial shock and realization that in order to start feeling better it was a requirement I started looking around me.

Guess what?  There are tons of pre-prepared options out there, I had no idea!  In my pantry I now have gluten free pasta (some made with quinoa, some with rice), bread (check out Rudi’s, I find it in the frozen section at my grocery store, it’s awesome), GF flour from King Arthur flour, some mixes from Bob’s Red Mill and a couple of frozen dinners from Amy’s that are good in a pinch.  The products that are available are wonderful. 

A warning though, just because it says gluten free on the front doesn’t mean it will be safe for you to eat.  There is a FDA guideline that says what is allowed to be marked as GF, I can’t remember exactly what the level is, but sometimes it can still cause some issues.  For me it was some crackers, I won’t say which brand, I dove into them with gusto thinking they were ok (they were so good!), they weren’t ok for me.  Unfortunately, when you are eating pre-prepared items, it is a process of trial and error.

I have only scratched the surface in finding internet resources for GF recipes.  I have found several, and I have tried more than a few of their recipes.  I have found that Pinterest can be a good resource for GF recipes; there are quite a few people out there with boards collecting GF recipes.  If you have a GF recipe board of your own on Pinterest let me know so that I can follow you!

I thought I would share my recipe for chicken fajitas, something I didn’t have to change other than using corn tortillas instead of flour.

Chicken Fajitas

(4-6 servings depending on how hungry you are)

1 lb. chicken tenders (make sure they are pretty thin so it’s easy to bite through them)

1 lime

1 T olive oil

1.5 tsp Cumin

1.5 tsp Oregano (either regular or Mexican)

1 tsp Chipotle chili powder (optional)

1 tsp salt

.5 tsp black pepper

1 large sweet onion sliced thin

1 -2 large bell peppers (I use red)

2 corn tortillas per person

1.      Place the chicken in a glass dish and combine with juice from the lime, olive oil, cumin, oregano, chili powder, salt and pepper.  Cover with plastic and put in refrigerator for about an hour (don’t leave it too long or the lime juice will “cook” the chicken)

2.      Sautee the sliced onions and peppers over medium heat with a little bit of oil and salt until well cooked and slightly caramelized, remove from pan and keep warm

3.      While you are sautéing the veggies heat another skillet (NOT nonstick) and cook/slightly char the corn tortillas, wrap in paper towels and foil to keep warm

4.      Drain off any remaining liquid from the chicken (I usually pat it with a paper towel to get it mostly dry) and put in pan being careful not to crowd it so that it browns well

5.      Turn chicken as needed and cook until done, add the onions and peppers back into the pan just to warm back up

6.      Serve everything together, I top mine with a bit of cheese, homemade guacamole and pico de gallo.  I’m not big on rice but sometimes I will make some refried black beans to go with it along with a salad.