Crispy Coconut Chicken Fingers

Lately I have been really liking coconut. It must be all those years of buying Dad Almond Joys and having a bite. I made these the other day and thought they were a good twist on chicken fingers. The coconut adds just enough sweetness and pairs well with the spices. And if you can believe it, I followed this recipe exactly (I even measured the spices!). The kids ate it up. We dipped it in ranch and BBQ and I thought the sweet BBQ was the better sauce for it. On the website where I got it she said to pair it with sweet and sour sauce, and I think that would have tasted really good.

Crispy Coconut Chicken Fingers

From: http://www.ourbestbites.com/

12 chicken tenders

2 eggs

1/2 c. flour

1 c. sweetened coconut flakes

1 c. panko bread crumbs (ok, I just realized that I actually didn't follow this recipe exactly. I didn't have these, so I used my italian bread crumbs from Wal-Mart, but I bet the panko would have been yummy)

1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

3/4 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. curry powder

1/4 tsp. onion powder

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Chop coconut into smaller flakes. Beat eggs in shallow bowl. Put flour in another shallow bowl. In yet another shallow bowl stir together coconut, bread crumbs, garlic powder, salt, curry and onion powder.

Coat chicken tenders in flour, then egg, then crumb mixture. I had to used my hands and press the crumb mixture on the chicken tenders to coat them really well. This is what our hands looked like after:

Line baking sheet with tinfoil and spray with cooking spray. Place chicken tenders on the pan and cook for 20 minutes. On the Our Best Bites website, she said to watch them closely and don't over cook them. Now, like all of you, I am a product of our mother and tend to error on the side of caution when it comes to cooking chicken. But this time, I decided to cook it for the 20 minutes (and make sure there was no pink inside). And here is the amazing part, I didn't over cook my chicken! And it was really juicy and yummy! And nobody got salmonella!