Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Sometimes chicken makes for a blah dinner, and sometimes great tasting chicken has a lot of breading, is fried, or takes hours to roast.

I saw a recipe on Jessica’s blog at How Sweet It Is for Crunchy Chicken Fingers. With a short ingredient list and no butter, eggs, or oil, I decided to try it. It’s also baked. She writes that she and her husband don’t try too many “strange” foods as Jeffrey calls it, so I know we are similar eaters. It doesn’t hurt that her photos are unbelievable and her baked goods are drool-worthy. You need to go check it out. But remember I warned you if you run to look for a cookie.

Crunchy Chicken Fingers

Ingredients:

• 1 pack boneless, skinless chicken tenders
• 2 C low-fat buttermilk
• 1/2 C whole wheat flour
• 3 C panko bread crumbs
• 1 C corn flake crumbs (I subbed Special K, didn’t want to buy a whole box of cereal)
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp pepper

Instructions:

• For 2-24 hours, soak chicken in buttermilk in a Pyrex dish in refrigerator.
• Preheat oven to 450*
• Lay a wire rack on a baking sheet and spray with Pam. In a sepaate bowl, mix flour, panko, cereal flakes, salt, and pepper. Dip the chicken in the panko mix and coat on both sides, then lay on the baking sheet. Repeat with other pieces.
• Spray each chicken piece lightly with Pam to help crisp in the oven. Bake for 12 minutes on each side. Let cool.

So delicious! Jeffrey even liked them a whole lot and gave them his approval. The chicken was crispy, golden brown, and had great flavor. The cooking time was perfect in not drying them out or leaving them undercooked. He even ate them the next night as leftovers! This is a rare thing.

Carrot and Parsnip Fries

I kid you not in saying that Jeffrey actually liked parsnip fries a lot. I did not think he would be into eating a parsnip. I had not cooked with parsnips before, but the pictures I had seen made them look just like french fries. So I had to try.

For the first time making them, I kept the flavors simple. We both loved them.

Ingredients (serves 2 people):

• 5 carrots
• 5 parsnips
• salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil, garlic powder

Instructions:

• Peel carrots and parsnips and chop off the ends.
• Cut in half horizontally and then slice in half vertically. Cut vertical again to get pieces that look like fries.
• Lay them all on a parchment paper lined baking sheet (makes for easier clean up) and coat with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Toss around with hands.
• Preheat oven to 400*. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until crispy and browned.

We noticed that the vegetables shrunk in the oven quite a bit. I thought there would be more leftover than there was, or we just really loved our root vegetables.

I also have only one oven, so I started the vegetables first, then added the chicken after about 20 minutes and heated the oven to 450* and let them all cook together. Our vegetables cooked for about 40 minutes including the increase in temperature. Plan accordingly if you try this. Just watch until they get crispy.

These fries were delicious! The carrots tasted like sweet potatoes, and the parsnips looked like homemade potato fries but were a little more dense and chewy on the inside but crispy on the outside. I thought they were great. And Jeffrey liked them too! He called it one of our best dinners!

To go with the chicken and root vegetables, I sauteed some sugar snap peas with one half red onion and added some salt, pepper, and teriyaki sauce to the pan. The onions got sweet and caramelized and it all went great together.