What's more American than a chicken tender?? A nice piece of the most tender part of a chicken breast, straight from the freezer to your fryer....Wait, that's not a good way to eat. With everyone on a diet, it seems that this delicious treat gets cut out of a lot of diets. But it doesn't have to. Here is a great way to enjoy chicken tenders, baked, and without shelling out the big bucks to get them from the frozen section. It's a little messy but it's pretty easy to make them right at home. Here's how it goes
1 lb Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
2 Tbsp Garlic Salt
1 Tbsp Onion Powder
4 Large Eggs
1/2 Cup Yellow Mustard
1/2 Cup Honey
1/4 Cup Water
4 Cups Coarsely Crushed Pretzels
Start by cutting your chicken breasts in to strips. The size is a personal preference, but I try and get them about the same size as restaurant strips. From the grocery store, this should be about 4 breasts, but from your local butcher shop, you might be able to get a pound out of one breast. Once these are cut up, set them aside for a moment. Next, find three wide, shallow containers. Chinese food containers work great for this. In the first, combine the flour, garlic salt, and onion powder and mix them well. In a separate bowl, place the eggs, honey, mustard, and water, and whisk well. Once these ingredients are combined, pour the mixture in the second shallow container. Place the Pretzels in a freezer ziploc bag (trust me, you will want the extra thick bag to prevent rupture) and crush them up with something heavy. I use my four cup measuring cup in a hammering motion, so I get some fine crumbs, but most of the pretzels are very coarse. This will make the pretzel appearance for the crust. Once they are to the proper consistency, pour them into the third shallow container. Now, line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and then spray it lightly with cooking spray. Set your oven heat to 400°F. Now, take the chicken pieces, one at a time and prepare them as follows. Dredge in the flour mixture. Dip in the wet mixture, making sure the entire piece is saturated, then roll it in the pretzel pieces. Once all the pieces are breaded, the oven should be fully heated, so slide the cookie sheet in on the top rack and cook your strips for 15-25 minutes. Ovens vary, and you may have cut some bigger than I did. A meat thermometer to 165°F or cutting a big piece open to see if there is pink in the middle is the most certain indicator. Once they are out, find your favorite dipping sauce and enjoy.
Makes: Well that depends on how big you cut your pieces. I got 10 out of my last batch. They are a little dryer than deep fried, but baked is always healthier.
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Healthy Eating Tips 1: Chinese Food Containers
You read this blog, and you may start to think, "I would gain hundreds of lbs if I ate this way". Well, that could be a truth, but you do need to keep in mind that if you are, in fact, concerned about this, then you need to portion what you take in. As a single male that lives alone, but loves to cook, I quite often find myself with an ample amount of food. One thing that's important about the way I cook is that everything I make, and by extension every recipe I share, reheats very well the next day, or later on in the week. One of the things that makes portion control easiest for me, as well as feeding myself for days to come, is one of the greatest advances in food technology. The Chinese Food Container.
Now, anyone who has had Chinese in a city knows these containers well. Flimsy as hell, white plastic bottom, clear plastic top. Usually house a noodle dish such as lo mein or chow mai fun. These containers are washable and completely re-usable, and they are FREE. One of the things that makes these wonderful containers great is that they were really designed to house a meal, and are great to keep using for such a purpose. And unlike that expensive tupperware or even those Ziploc brand containers; if your container cracks or breaks, throw it out and go order Chinese food and get another one.
What makes these containers ideal is they are wide and relatively shallow. So, at night, after you make your boneless spare ribs and mac and cheese, and everyone has had his or her fill, and the kids are out watching cartoons, you bust out your containers, and portion out some mac and cheese, some broccoli, and some cut up pieces of rib meat in each one, drizzle some sauce over the top of the meat, and pop it in the fridge. Then, on your way to work the next day, grab one out of the fridge and put it in the fridge at work. There's your lunch for the day, quick and painless. The shallow nature of the container even makes for a very effective plate, and the container itself is microwave safe.
And don't forget the cookies.
What's better than cookies straight out of the oven?? It's too bad that most cookie recipes are intended to make dozens at a time. Our friend, the Chinese food container, offers a solution. See, cookie dough actually freezes very, very well. So, you make your batch of cookies as normal and bake whatever you find to be an appropriate amount for you and the people in your home to have a fresh from the oven cookie. Then ball up the remaining dough into small balls as if you were going to bake them, and put them in a series of Chinese food containers. The shallow design means that you have a layer of dough balls that won't stack on top of each other no matter how hard the container gets shaken, and the cover protects from the drying effects of the freezer. And, when you're ready for more, take the container out, remove as many balls as desired, and bake away. Keep in mind that you'll have to bake them a little longer, and they won't flatten out as much as fresh dough, but they taste just as great.
Included is my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, which is the Nestle Toll House recipe with the chips reduced.
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks of butter, softened (do not melt completely)
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract or 3 tablespoons artificial vanilla flavor
2 eggs
1 cup Nestle Chocolate Chips
Combine the butter and the sugars in one bowl and cream them together. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt and stir well. Beat the eggs into the sugar mixture and then whisk in the vanilla. Stir the flour mixture into the sugar mixture little by little and then add the chocolate chips. Ball up the dough to desired cookie size (the recipe says a Tablespoon, but we all know no one does that) and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375°F for 9 minutes, or until golden brown, and cool on a wire rack then a paper bag. Put the leftovers in a Chinese food container for later. Freezable for up to 8 weeks
Now, anyone who has had Chinese in a city knows these containers well. Flimsy as hell, white plastic bottom, clear plastic top. Usually house a noodle dish such as lo mein or chow mai fun. These containers are washable and completely re-usable, and they are FREE. One of the things that makes these wonderful containers great is that they were really designed to house a meal, and are great to keep using for such a purpose. And unlike that expensive tupperware or even those Ziploc brand containers; if your container cracks or breaks, throw it out and go order Chinese food and get another one.
What makes these containers ideal is they are wide and relatively shallow. So, at night, after you make your boneless spare ribs and mac and cheese, and everyone has had his or her fill, and the kids are out watching cartoons, you bust out your containers, and portion out some mac and cheese, some broccoli, and some cut up pieces of rib meat in each one, drizzle some sauce over the top of the meat, and pop it in the fridge. Then, on your way to work the next day, grab one out of the fridge and put it in the fridge at work. There's your lunch for the day, quick and painless. The shallow nature of the container even makes for a very effective plate, and the container itself is microwave safe.
And don't forget the cookies.
What's better than cookies straight out of the oven?? It's too bad that most cookie recipes are intended to make dozens at a time. Our friend, the Chinese food container, offers a solution. See, cookie dough actually freezes very, very well. So, you make your batch of cookies as normal and bake whatever you find to be an appropriate amount for you and the people in your home to have a fresh from the oven cookie. Then ball up the remaining dough into small balls as if you were going to bake them, and put them in a series of Chinese food containers. The shallow design means that you have a layer of dough balls that won't stack on top of each other no matter how hard the container gets shaken, and the cover protects from the drying effects of the freezer. And, when you're ready for more, take the container out, remove as many balls as desired, and bake away. Keep in mind that you'll have to bake them a little longer, and they won't flatten out as much as fresh dough, but they taste just as great.
Included is my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, which is the Nestle Toll House recipe with the chips reduced.
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks of butter, softened (do not melt completely)
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract or 3 tablespoons artificial vanilla flavor
2 eggs
1 cup Nestle Chocolate Chips
Combine the butter and the sugars in one bowl and cream them together. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt and stir well. Beat the eggs into the sugar mixture and then whisk in the vanilla. Stir the flour mixture into the sugar mixture little by little and then add the chocolate chips. Ball up the dough to desired cookie size (the recipe says a Tablespoon, but we all know no one does that) and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375°F for 9 minutes, or until golden brown, and cool on a wire rack then a paper bag. Put the leftovers in a Chinese food container for later. Freezable for up to 8 weeks
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