Kid-Friendly Weeknight Recipe: Asian-Style Crusted Chicken

Guest Post by Meredith

Are you interested in guest posting on Family Friendly Frugality? Please email me heather @ familyfriendlyfrugality.com

If you have picky eaters in your family, a couple things are probably true. First of all, you probably have a lot of boneless chicken breasts in your freezer since they can be used in so many different meals, and secondly, you probably end up repeating the same meals over and over again. If you’re stuck in a recipe rut because of picky kids, try bringing them into the kitchen to help cook. Kids who help make what’s for dinner will be much more likely to eat—or at least try!—an unfamiliar dish, and it can serve as quality family bonding time, too!

This Asian-Style Crusted Chicken is a great go-to weeknight meal that your kids will love helping out with. It has a lot going for it in the kid-friendly department: it resembles chicken fingers, involves dipping sauce and—here’s the best part—popcorn is one of the main ingredients! Kids will love helping to crumble up the popcorn for the chicken coating and will be excited to be eating a dinner made with a movie-theater treat.

At just 325 calories per three piece serving, though, you can feel good about serving your family a nutritious, good-for-you meal. Because the chicken is dipped in an egg substitute mixture rather than shell eggs, this dish is lower in fat and calories than many other breaded chicken recipes. This is also one of those easy recipes for dinner where you probably have most of the ingredients in your pantry already—try it out and watch it work itself into your weeknight dinner rotation!

Asian-Style Crusted Chicken

Prep Time: 20 min

Total Time: 30 min

Serves 4 (3 pieces each)

Calories: 325

Ingredients:

• PAM® Original No-Stick Cooking Spray
• 2 cups popped Orville Redenbacher’s® Smart Pop!® Butter Microwave Popcorn, crushed into
• crumbs
• 1/3 cup dry roasted peanuts, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup Egg Beaters® Original
• 1 teaspoon La Choy® Soy Sauce
• 12 boneless skinless chicken breast tenders (12 tenders = 1 lb)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup La Choy® Sweet and Sour Sauce

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 375°. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and set it aside.
2. Combine popcorn crumbs and peanuts in a shallow dish; set aside. Whisk together Egg Beaters and soy sauce in another shallow dish. Tip: For an easy way to crush your popcorn, place popped popcorn in a gallon resealable bag and crush it with a rolling pin.
3. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Dip each tender in the Egg Beaters mixture, then roll in the popcorn mixture. Place coated tenders on your baking sheet.
4. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn tenders over. Bake for 5 more minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in the centers. Serve with sweet and sour sauce for dipping. Enjoy!

Author Bio: This is a guest post by Meredith K. on behalf of ReadySetEat. For more easy chicken recipes and other quick weeknight dinner ideas, visit www.readyseteat.com.