Chicken Strips

Chicken strips are on the menu today.

Juicy and crunchy: the whole package!

My elder daughter is an extremely picky eater. Her list of approved dishes is pretty short: pizza, pasta, rice. I can kill myself cooking all kinds of delicacies and she would look at them as if they are about to jump off the plate and bite her. Packing her lunch bag is a nightmare and it consists of a steady rotation of pasta and french toast. In an attempt to broaden her palate I have even read a book titled “French Kids Eat Everything” but it turned out that I am not a French parent and she is not a French kid, alas! But I have recently discovered that she started looking favourably at chicken strips. I try not to buy frozen meals if making my own is an option, so I decided to give chicken strips a try.

I find that Panko crumbs are hands-down the best option for breading

In an attempt to make my version a little bit healthier, I used coconut oil for frying and whole wheat flour for breading. As the dish is aimed mainly at picky kids, I had to contain myself when it came to seasoning and only used salt, black pepper and dry mustard. Dry mustard gave my chicken strips a great and subtle flavour and if you did not know any better, you would have never guessed that it is actually in the dish. Also: my daughter loved them!

Rub in the seasoning and the strips are ready for breading

 

The ingredients: 

• 2 chicken breasts, cut diagonally into 1.5″ strips
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 1 tsp dry mustard
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup Panko bread crumbs
• 4+ tbsp coconut oil for frying

The assembly line: chicken, flour, egg wash, bread crumbs, oiled up frying pan

The steps:

1. Season the meat with salt, pepper and dry mustard
2. Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat
3. Add two table spoons of cold water to the eggs (I find that bread crumbs stick better to the egg wash if it has a dash of water in it)
4. The next steps are the assembly line: dip each chicken strip in flour, followed by egg wash, followed by a roll in Panko crumbs
5. Fry the strips until golden brown, rotating them occasionally. I add a bit more oil to the pan during frying as bread crumbs absorb quite a bit of it.

The oil just needs to cover the bottom of the frying pan