Healthy Chicken Strips - 21 Day Fix

44 Chicken Strips

Healthy Chicken Strips. That are delicious? It can be done. My favorite part of these is that they are great to pre-make and freeze for the future. And I love the avocado dipping sauce.

This recipe makes 15 servings of 3 chicken strips each. You can halve the recipe to make a smaller amount. The recipe is pretty forgiving and doesn't need to be precise.

Ingredients

• 2 Pounds chicken strips (approximately 45 strips)
• 2-3 cups unsweetened almond milk (I used vanilla, and I like it.)
• 2-3 eggs (Use 1 egg per 1 cup of milk.)
• 1 cup of Parmesan cheese
• 2.5 cups of whole wheat panko, divided into 1 cup and 1.5 cups
• 1 cup of whole wheat flour
• 3 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp paprika
• 2 tsp oregano



Breading Station

• salt & pepper

Directions

1. Wisk together the almond milk, eggs, and a few dashes of pepper. Soak chicken strips in mixture. (I used a very large bowl to place all the strips into.)
2. In a food processor, combine the Parmesan cheese, 1 cup of panko bread crumbs, flour, and seasonings. Blend well (up to 1 minute). Add in the remaining 1.5 cups of panko and pulse 2-3 times. (This leaves some of the panko in larger pieces.)
3. Prepare for breading - take one strip from wet mix, place in dry coating, coat, place on parchment lined cookie sheet. 
4. Use parchment paper in between layer of strips - I had three layers. 
5. Place cookie tray in freezer and freeze until solid, approximately 6 or more hours.

To Cook: Cook from frozen. Line a baking sheet with parchment or foil (spray the foil with cooking spray), place strips in a single layer, cook at 425 degrees for 25-30 minutes. (PSA - Don't eat under cooked chicken or you'll get sick.)

A serving size is 3 strips - for 1 Red, 1/2 Blue, and 1/2 Yellow. The 3 strips will fill you up too, if you eat it with veggies or a salad. 

Avocado Sauce

• 1 ripe avocado
• 8 ounces or 1 cup of Greek Yogurt
• 1/2 cup salsa
• 1 tsp Lemon Juice
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Pepper

Place all ingredients in the food processor and blend until smooth. Makes approximately 2 cups of sauce. Approximately 1/4 cup of sauce counts as 1/2 Blue (the avocado) and 1/2 red (the Greek yogurt.) The salsa is negligible.


Helpful Tips

I recommend using your food processor for both the dry coating and making the avocado dipping sauce. It's my favorite kitchen gadget, next to the Mix n Chop. 

Set up your work space correctly so you make as little mess as possible. Keep one hand wet (or I used tongs) and keep one dry hand. I even wore a glove when touching the chicken so the coating wouldn't stick to my fingers. 

Cost: The chicken strips are the most expensive, I spent $18 on 2.88 pounds at Sam's Club. I set aside 10 strips to grill/cook later and used just over 2 pounds (44 strips) to make the chicken strips. I had a little coating left over that would have given me 2-3 more strips. I estimate buying the almond milk, eggs, cheese, panko, the avocado sauce ingredients, you'll spend less than $25 to make this bulk product.