Panko Breaded Chicken Fingers Recipe

We eat a lot of chicken in our house. A lot. Mainly because the kids don't really like other meats and chicken is less expensive, which is important for a large family on a budget. While I generally like to keep our meals healthy, eventually you just get sick of eating baked chicken over and over again. So last week I decided to change it up and go the not so healthy route of fried chicken fingers. Now in my defense I didn't deep fry them, just in a pan with a little extra virgin olive oil. That makes them a little more healthy, right? Well, that's what I keep telling myself anyway.

Panko Breaded Chicken Fingers

Ingredients
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast halves or tenders, pounded to about 1/4 inch thick
panko breadcrumbs
flour
2 large eggs
1 tbsp milk
extra virgin olive oil

Directions
1. Slice chicken into desired "finger" sized pieces. I usually start with boneless skinless chicken breast tenders that I pound thin and then slice them diagnolly to get a chicken finger size. If you start with the larger breast halves, you'll just have to slice a few more times.

2. Coat a large saute pan with a thin layer of extra virgin olive oil and heat on medium-low.

3. Set up three good sized bowls for dipping. The first bowl should have flour, you can start with a cup and add more if needed. In the second bowl whisk together your eggs and milk. And fill the third bowl (or dish) with breadcrumbs.

4. Start the chicken finger assembly line. Take a piece of chicken and coat with flour, then dunk in egg mixture and then coat in breadcrumbs. I set these all aside on a plate until I am ready to put them all in the pan. I don't want to have to go back and forth between dipping and frying.

5. Once all of your chicken is ready, place them in the pan. I was able to get mine done in one batch. If I am making more than a pound, then I use two pans that way all of the chicken is cooking at the same time.

6. Once the bottoms start to brown, probably around 5-6 minutes, flip over and continue to cook for another 5-6 minutes. I always cut one open to be sure its cooked throughouly, just to be safe.

7. Place finished chicken on a dish lined with two paper towels and place another paper towel on top of chicken to absorb as much excess oil as possible.

8. Serve with your favorite dipping sauce!

Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce

When I made this chicken last week, I very badly wanted some honey mustard sauce to dip it in, but all I had was spicy brown mustard. I thought why not just combine that with some honey? It could work right? It could and it did. I realize that this is cheating and not the same as making it from scratch, but I simply don't have the time for that. So I took equal parts spicy brown mustard and honey and mixed them together and made myself a very tasty sauce. Even my 6 year old loved it. It was perfect!