Taste Test Tuesday: Chicken Strips with Honey Mustard Dip

Wes loooooves his chicken strips!! Everytime we go out to a nice restaraunt, chicken strips are the main contender for his affections. He usually chooses either chicken strips or chicken wings. Me, I am a steak girl. All the way.

Before we begin, here's a little cooking tip for you....when you buy boneless skinless chicken breasts, turn them over. See that extra piece of chicken that just seems to be hanging around waiting to be noticed? Well it is! That is your chicken tender. When I get chicken breasts on sale, I stock up, take them home and cut off all of the cute little tenders and bag them up and put them in my freezer. It makes my chicken breast more of a manageable size and it gives me an extra meal of strips!! This doesn't work when you buy your chicken in the frozen bag because they have already removed the tender.

Now that I had strips in my freezer, I was looking for a yummy recipe that I could make at home that would be healthier than the fried up kind you get when you go out. I came across this recipe in a new book I got, "Cook this, Not That" by David Zinkzenko.

Here's the recipe:

Chicken Fingers with Chipotle Honey Mustard

Ingredients:

1 lb boneless skinless chicken tenders

Salt and pepper to taste

3 egg whites, lightly beaten

2 cups panko bread crumbs**

2 Tbsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp chipotle pepper puree (I don't have this on hand so it's not making the cut this time!)

1 Tbsp honey

How to make it:

1. Preheat the oven to 450degrees. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Place egg whites in a shallow bowl. Place the crumbs on a plate and season those too. Dip chicken tenders into the egg, then toss in the crumbs, being sure to fully coat.

2. Place the breaded chicken pieces on a baking sheet coated with nonstick cooking spray and back for 10 to 12 minutes, until the crumbs have browned and the chicken is firm.

3. Combine the mustard, chipotle and honey in a large bowl. Toss the cooked tenders in the mixture so they are all evenly coated with the spicy-sweet sauce.

**Panko breadcrumbs can be found in the ethnic section of your supermarket. They are Japanese. Oishiii. (Yummy in Japanese)

Cook's Notes: The panko crumbs did not brown the way I was led to believe so I ended up cooking the chicken a wee bit too much, about 10 minutes longer than the recipe suggests. The chicken was a little dry for my taste but Wes like it just fine. That's the beauty of me doing this first...you get to learn from my mistakes!!

This was my kitchen assistant, Charlie, who stood on guard for falling food. He takes his job very seriously, that is why he is not smiling in this picture. He is like one of the guards at Buckingham Palace or something. This is our friends Chris and Erin's dog that we have been watching while they have been poolside in Argentina for the Christmas holiday. Let's all stick our tongues out at them right now......

Here are the tenders all breaded and ready to go in the oven:

And the finished product: