Coconut flour and Parmesan crusted chicken tenders.

       In addition to eating low carb, i’m trying to exclude wheat and flour completely from my diet. I decided to experiment with other types of breading to make chicken tenders. This recipe uses coconut flour and Parmesan cheese as a base for the breading. You could use one of, or a mixture of, coconut flour, Parmesan cheese or even almond flour. I have also used crushed fried onion pieces and crushed pork rinds in the past. I may post some of those recipes in the future.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb chicken tenderloins - 0.0 Carbs, 320 Calories
• 4 tbsp of coconut flour – 6g Net carbs (16 Carbs -10g fiber), 120 Calories
• 4 tbsp of grated Parmesan cheese – 0.0g carbs, 75 calories
• ½ tsp of salt – 0.0g Carbs, 0 calories
• ½ tsp pepper – 0.0g Carbs, 17 Calories
• 1 egg - 0.6g Carbs, 78 calories

Total 6.6 net carbs and 610 calories

Procedure:

1. Create a dry batter mixture by combining the coconut flour, Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper together in a medium bowl.
2.  Crack the egg into a medium bowl and whisk with a fork. I like to add a teaspoon of water too.
3. Trim the chicken to remove all of the fat. Additionally, I typically remove the ligament from the tenderloin. The ligament is a white string-like piece running through the center of the chicken tenderloin. Some people will leave the ligament in the chicken as long as it’s not too tough or large. Removing the ligament from all the tenderloin is a little extra work, and I end up losing some good chicken meat in the process, but I think it’s worth it.  You could also just slice a chicken breast into strips and save yourself the trouble ;).
4. Add peanut oil to a frying pan. I try to add enough oil so the tender is ½ submerged into the oil. The oil temperature should be 350-375°. You could substitute peanut oil for safflower oil, sunflower oil, or canola oil as they all have a high smoke point.
5. Place the chicken into the egg (that sounds funny..I wonder which came first haha). Then dredge the egg covered chicken into the dry mixture. Be sure to thoroughly coat the chicken in the dry mixture. Finally, place the chicken into the hot oil.
6. Fry until both sides are golden brown and the chicken is cooked thoroughly.