More often than not there's between
four and six in for tea, therefore planning meals is a tricky task especially
when things often change last minute. So planning meals that can be padded out
at a moments noticed is the best way forward and a recent family favourite is
breaded chicken strips!
This meal initially came about after having five of us in
for tea with only three chicken breasts out of the freezer. Now usually the
solution would be to make a curry and pad it out with sweet potatoes and
pepper, however, when faced with a cooking challenge I sometimes like to play
Ready Steady Cook! (Popular afternoon cookery show I watched with my mum in the
90’s, where chefs were faced with a bag of random ingredients, think it’s still
around every now and then.) So with three chicken breasts, some crusts of
bread, a cupboard of spices and some sweet potatoes I went to work. This dish
does fairly well on our healthy-household scale. The chicken is a good source
of lean protein, the breadcrumbs are kept to a minimum and we’ve gone with
brown bread, we’ve cut back on fat where we can; low fat mayo, 1 cal spray and
a small amount of olive oil. The end result tastes amazing and it disappears
pretty quickly off the plate! Its relatively straight forward and because I’ve
used olive oil instead of egg or milk to coat the chicken it isn’t as
messy!
Feeds 5
Ingredients
3 chicken breasts
2 crusts of brown bread grated (can be swapped for white)
Cajun
Mixed herbs
5 sweet potatoes
3tbsp Low fat mayonnaise
1 cal spray
Olive oil
Salad
- Preheat your oven to gas mark 7. Wash and prick your sweets potatoes all over, wrap in some kitchen paper and microwave for 5-10 minuets each – this all depends on the size of the potatoes, I tend to microwave two at a time for five minuets and give them a squeeze, if they’re beginning to soften then they’re ready if not wack them on for a few minutes more.
- Put jackets in the oven with a tray underneath, as they tend to leak sticky stuff – trust me I found this out the hard way, messy oven to clean up!
- With a pair of kitchen scissors cut you beats into strips, its up to how big or small, I do my about an inch wide and 2cm thick. (This is where you can make your meal look bigger and make it go further!)
- Put the chicken in a bowl and give a couple of shakes of both the Cajun and mixed herbs, you want an even covering so get in there with your hands. Don’t look covered enough? Put a couple more shakes in, go with your gut instinct!
- Drizzle around 1tsp of olive oil into the bowl, you don’t need much just a light coating – this will help the breadcrumbs stick.
- One by one dip the chicken strips in the breadcrumbs, (it will give them a light coating as opposed to a heavy one if you dipped them in egg or milk first).
- Place the strips on a baking tray or roasting dish, if you have any left over bread crumbs sprinkle them over, these bits will go nice an crispy adding a good bit of crunch!
- Spray the chicken with some one-cal spray, this will help add some colour to chicken , and place in the oven for 20 minuets, turning half way through.
- Meanwhile make your salad this can be as plain or as interesting as you like, sift through your fridge! To make the Cajun mayo put 3tbsp of low fat mayonnaise into a bowl with a couple of shakes of Cajun spice, stir and add more for a stronger flavour – ooops too much? Add a small amount of mayonnaise to balance it out again.
- After the 20 minuets is up check the chicken to make sure its cooked through and your ready to assemble your dish!
It’s important to remember that this dish is entirely
adaptable. You can change the spices or make sweet potato chips instead of
jackets. Please let me know how you get on with this dish and if you have any
suggestions for feeding a hungry bunch!
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