Coconut Chicken Tenders

Before you skip this because of the chicken's golden fried color, let me announce that this recipe is straight from the pages of Cooking Light. Welcome to a coconut chicken recipe that won't leave you feeling heavy, greasy, and gross.

Chicken breasts on sale equal a lot of chicken in the freezer, and a lot of chicken in the freezer equals a hunt for new recipes. Cooking Light came through for me again with a delicious, relatively simple dish that's not loaded with fat and calories. Grab some chicken breasts, slice them up, and make these tenders happen!

Coconut Chicken Tenders

chefjennylyn.com

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into 1/2-inch-thick strips

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper

1 cup rice flour (Jenny-Lyn: I used all-purpose)

1 cup whole buttermilk

1 large egg

1 1/2 cups unsweetened flaked coconut

3 tablespoons canola oil

Sweet chile sauce (optional)

Preparation

1. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Place flour in a shallow dish. Combine buttermilk and egg in a shallow dish, stirring well. Place coconut in a shallow dish. Dredge chicken in flour; shake off excess. Dip chicken in egg mixture; dredge in coconut.

2. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add chicken to pan; cook 6 minutes or until done, turning to brown. Serve with chile sauce, if desired.

As always, getting ingredients out before putting anything together is a good call. This is how you prevent, "Oh, I don't have any eggs, but other ingredients are already mixed!" situations. Here's what's being used: Measuring Spoon Set, Easy Read Mini Measuring Cup, Easy Read Measuring Cups, Small Batter Bowl, Cake Pans, Measuring Cups, Dots Pasta Bowl, Large Cutting Board.

I didn't take pictures because I didn't want to wash my hands five extra times while slicing chicken, but I used the 5" Santoku Knife from the Forged Cutlery Collection. All I can say is that chicken doesn't have to be sawed, and if you're sawing, you need a new knife. I had no idea before I began using the Forged Cutlery Collection! My flour mixture, egg mixture, and coconut are in Cake Pans. These are perfect for dredging because of their deep sides and light weight. Note: The set comes with two pans, not three.

Cooking is messy. From the cake pans, chicken goes into the 10" Skillet from the Executive Cookware Collection. I'm using the Chef's Tongs for chicken handling, and I can't say enough about them. They have a long handle to keep my arm away from popping oil, and the silicone end keeps from scratching my cookware. Then there's the gentle grip that ensures coconut crust stays on the chicken instead of in the pan. Thanks, Chef's Tongs!

Ok, so if you're looking for a new way to use chicken breasts, look no further. These tenders are simple and delicious. Enjoy!

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E-mail me: chefjennylyn[at]gmail.com

Call me up: (205) 585-2464

Rainbow Cake with Marshmallow Fluff Icing

Happy St. Patrick's Day! To join me in celebration, my best friend came over to bake a cake last night. Not just any cake: A rainbow cake. We could have done something else that was green, but we wanted to branch out to following the rainbow for a pot of gold. So ROY-G-BIV with us, and make a rainbow cake today, tomorrow, or whenever you feel like it!
(The cake is on the Cake Pedestal.)

Rainbow Cake with Marshmallow Fluff Icingchefjennylyn.com

1 White cake mix (plus ingredients on package)
Food coloring
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp. butter, softened
2 tbsp. half-and-half
2 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 heaping tbsp. marshmallow fluff
1 1/2 tbsp. water


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix cake mix according to package directions, and split batter into six small bowls. Follow the rainbow with each bowl (ROY-G-BIV) red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. Spread batter in two cake pans, one color at a time. Bake according to package directions, and cool completely.

For icing, beat together butter, sugar, half-and-half, and milk. Add vanilla and marshmallow fluff, beating well. Add water as needed until you get the texture you want. When icing cake, let first layer set a minute before adding second layer. Otherwise, the icing will all squish out because, yes, it's that texture.

No, this isn't actually my serving, but I had you fooled, didn't I? Nothing says Happy St. Patrick's Day like dressing like a moron and eating 1/4 of a cake! This is a Small Square Plate from the Simple Additions Collection.


Here's Elizabeth rocking her green and stirring together the cake mix. Water and oil are measured into Easy Read Measuring Cups, and the eggs are in a Pinch Bowl. Then we've got Prep Bowls ready to go for coloring batter. The Classic Batter Bowl is the perfect size when you're doing a cake or brownie mix, and its best friend is the Stainless Whisk.

There aren't many people you can invite to dress up and bake St. Patrick's Day food to post on the internet, but when you find those people, you keep them. Elizabeth is those people. Anyway, she's whisking the eggs a bit with the Mini-Whipper, and she can just do it right in the Easy Read Measuring Cup - no need to dirty more bowls!

Just sit back, relax, and let the Stainless Whisk and Classic Batter Bowl do their thing.

Look how clean that bowl got thanks to the Mix 'n Scraper! By taking time to scrape the sides of your bowl, you can get a lot more out of your baking effort. Try it sometime, and be amazed! We used the Large Scoop to divide out batter for coloring, and I think we ended up with about four scoops per color.

Elizabeth is an artist, so she's very particular about coloring cake batter. Thanks to her careful analysis, we ended up with the perfect green - not too dark, not too light.

The Prep Bowls and Small Square Bowls were perfect for dividing colors. This was like coloring Easter eggs but for adults - very mature adults.

Carefully add batter to the Cake Pans one color at a time, being careful not to mix everything together. That's the new Mini Mix 'n Scraper in the Small Square Bowl, and I think it might be one of my new favorites. It's so cute and fun! The Cake Pan Set is heavy-duty, and each pan has handles for easy grabbing and flipping.

Run a toothpick through each pan to swirl the batter, and you're ready to bake a cake!

This icing recipe is dangerous. First of all, there are several weird, little measurements. Then there's the fact that this fluffy concoction begs to be eaten, well, not on a cake. For our measurements, Elizabeth and I used the Pinch Bowls, the Easy Read Mini Measuring Cup, the Measuring Spoon Set, and an Adjustable Measuring Spoon. All these items are resting on a Small Square Plate from the Simple Additions Collection, and you can see a muddled mess of something on it. Well, this is proof that you should never measure over your recipe. Let's just say you're pouring milk from a 1-gallon jug into a 1-tbsp. measuring spoon and someone makes you laugh... Disaster could strike. The same is true for vanilla. Good thing no one decided to measure over the icing bowl! Moving on... Elizabeth is mixing icing in a Stainless Mixing Bowl, and she's using the Skinny Scraper to check for sugar lumps.

Now it's time to finish the job! Look at that icing! I promise it's some of the best stuff I've ever eaten, and I've eaten a lot of stuff. Ok, so my icing is in the 4-Qt. Stainless Mixing Bowl, and I'm using the Small Mix 'n Scraper to give it a stir every couple of minutes. That's the Small Spreader I'm using to ice the cake, and I think it might be the greatest thing in the world for this job. Again, my cake is on the Cake Pedestal, a beautiful plate that comes apart for versatile use and easy storage.

Want to see this cake again? Want to make one? That's what I thought! Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Like the products you saw used?

Shop Online 24/7 at pamperedchef.biz/jennylyn

E-mail me: chefjennylyn[at]gmail.com

Call me up: (205) 585-2464