By nature, I am an extremely playful person – I love to let my inner child out (sometimes a little TOO much). The other night when I was getting ready to cook, I wanted to make something that resembled comfort food – something new, and something fun! What’s more fun than getting all messy creating your own version of fried chicken fingers?! F and I had a blast getting silly with this recipe and making a 5th grade school lunch of coconut crusted chicken fingers – with some super yummy mustard date dipping sauce on the side.
Time to get your hands dirty!
That’s the beauty of cooking – paleo or not – it allows you to use your senses and instincts to pull together an amazing dish. You get to lose yourself, be impractical, make mistakes and taste test until you get sick. You get to be a kid again!
I did eat these leftover the next day and they were just as delicious – if you’re a parent, these would be great to make in a big batch on Sunday night for school lunches!
COCONUT CHICKEN FINGERS
INGREDIENTS:
1lb chicken breast cut into chicken strip sizes
1-2 eggs, beaten (start with one, and if you run out, add the other)
3T coconut flour
1T almond meal
1/2tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
cayenne pepper to taste
coconut oil for frying
DIRECTIONS:
Grab three small bowls and set up your three dipping stations: Station 1: Combine the almond flour, coconut flour, sea salt, black pepper and a little cayenne pepper if you’re feeling spicy; Station 2: Eggs, beaten; Station 3: unsweetened shredded coconut. After you cut your chicken breasts into strips, take each strip and place it first in your flour bowl, then in the egg, and finally in the coconut. This does get a little messy, but so fun. Don’t worry about getting a TON of the flour mixture on the chicken – a light dusting is fine. Place covered chicken strips onto a plate.
Ready for some frying
Once all of your chicken strips are coated, heat up about 2-3T of coconut oil in a medium sized frying pan. I had to do my chicken strips in 2 batches – if this is the case with you, place finished chicken strips on a cookie sheet, cover with foil, and set in the oven at the lowest temperature.
Drop the chicken strips into the hot oil on medium heat. It’s difficult to put a time on it because everyone’s strips will be different sizes, but I would say check them after about 2 minutes. Once the side is golden brown, flip em over and fry until the chicken is cooked through.
Looks sinful, but totally paleo 
PAIR WITH: MUSTARD DATE DIPPING SAUCE
I was literally blown away by this dipping sauce. It tastes exactly like a honey mustard sauce, but BETTER, AND paleo! Best of all, it only takes about 3 minutes to put together! Courtesy of http://cavemanfood.blogspot.com
INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup dates, pits removed
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1tsp sea salt
2T Dijon mustard (Trader Joe’s has a great paleo-friendly version)
DIRECTIONS: Stick all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Pour into a small saucepan and simmer about 10 minutes so the flavors can marry. You can serve this warm OR cold. Keeps about a week and a half and is great on just about ANYTHING!
So there you go, a totally tasty paleo way to kick off the week. If you notice, we were so starved once dinner was ready we forgot to take pics of the finished product! Enjoy!
Peace love and paleo —
That looks great! I love how quick it is too.