Recipe of the Week - Crispy Coconut Chicken

Each week, I will be attempting a new healthy recipe.  On Fridays, I will post the recipe and my experience making it.  This week, I made baked crispy coconut chicken.  For my first recipe, I was very pleased.  I tend to take the easy way when it comes to cooking, but I used quite a few ingredients on this one (some of you will probably still think it wasn't that many, but I'm learning!).  Here is a picture of the finished product.

As you can see, I decided to pair my chicken with some baked sweet potato fries.  On to the recipe!

Ingredients

• about 12 chicken tenders (I bought breasts and cut them up myself)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 cup sweetened coconut flakes
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 3/4 tsp. curry powder

      * The recipe I used also called for cayenne pepper and onion powder, but I'm not a fan, so I left                them out.  Feel free to put them back in.  

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450 F.  If you don't want larger chunks of coconut, chop it until it is the almost the size of the bread crumbs.  I skipped that step and thought it was fine, but I think having smaller pieces would be nice too.  Combine and mix the coconut flakes, bread crumbs, and spices thoroughly in a shallow dish.  Place the flour in another shallow dish, and finally the eggs in a third dish.  Beat the eggs.  You're finally ready to start breading the chicken.  Drag each tender through the flour, then through the eggs.  Finally, coat it thoroughly in the breading mixture.  Place the tenders on a pan (preferably covered in foil because, hey, easy clean up!).  Bake the tenders for about 20 minutes.  Some of the coconut flakes might look a litte too black, but I promise, they're okay.  Just keep an eye on them.  Smaller tenders will cook more quickly, while larger tenders may need 25 minutes.  The breading should be golden, but still light in color like my picture above shows.  

I had a lot of fun making this recipe, but I was very nervous while it was cooking.  I really hate overcooked chicken, but I found it difficult to know if the chicken was thoroughly cooked as well.  Finally, when I thought they were finished, I simply cut into a few of them to check.  Overall, I would call this one a success. My husband and roommate sure liked it!  Tune in next week for my attempt at taco casserole!