This recipe came to us because we homeschool. True story. While studying the Eastern Hemisphere (formerly known as Core 5) in Sonlight‘s catalog of great goods, we decided to have a “Taste of Cultures” night. At the end of the first semester, we invited friends and family over to taste a recipe from each countries/areaa we had studied. The kids also set out some drawings or other kind of little display next to the food. One wonderful event to review our studies and one smashingly amazing way to mess up a kitchen. It was worth it.
Anyhoo… Sarita Holzmann (co-founder of Sonlight and mother to one of my favorite blog readers, hello, Luke!) often sends out gifts to customers. This particular year I received a Sonlight Cooks cookbook. What a treasure! I gave the kids the book and the list of countries we had studied and allowed them free choice of one recipe per country.
Crispy Coconut Chicken Fingers is the one they picked from Australia.
It has now become a family favorite and a go-to recipe when we have guests with kiddos come for dinner.
Ingredients:
1 cup Angel Flake coconut (we use unsweetened shredded coconut)
1/2 cup flour (we use wheat)
12/ tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut into 1 inch strips
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter
Dipping Sauce: (you will NOT want to skip this!)
1 cup apricot preserves
2 TB Dijon mustard
How to prepare:
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix the dipping sauce ingredients well and set aside. Mix coconut, flour, salt, pepper, and garlic powder in medium bowl. Dip chicken strips into egg, then coat with coconut mixture. Place in a shallow baking pan; drizzle with melted butter. Bake 25 minutes or until chicken is browned and cooked through, turning once. Serve with dipping sauce.
These are delightful even if not cut into typical strips and even if burned a bit. See evidence above. Seriously, they are very yummy and not that difficult to make. A win/win in any mama’s book.
Have a favorite chicken recipe?
