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Ever since I showed you how to make your own Gluten Free Panko breadcrumbs and how to make regular Panko breadcrumbs, I’ve been getting emails about the wazoo about other variations of ‘flavors’. I’ve been on this coconut kick lately where I swear EVERYTHING had coconut in it yet what’s funny is if you put coconut in a drink and hand it to me, my nose will go so far up in the air it’s unreal. I’m that finicky!
Well the other day my grocery store had Gluten Free Vanilla Chex cereal on sale and I hadn’t tried it yet. When I got home, put the stuff away I opened up the box and took out a handful (I actually prefer dry cereal over cereal in milk … again, finicky person here). If you haven’t tried these, you must! They are soooooooooooo good! Sweeter than regular Chex but so yummy! That’s when it hit me! THIS would be awesome as a panko coating with coconut on chicken! As I was drafting up the recipe I had to think of what I could augment it with.. it needed some type of sauce/dip, aioli. It had to be something that fit in with the vanilla coconut flavors but also compliment it nicely. That’s when it hit me! It needed a Sriracha aioli based dip but it needed sweetened. I whipped up the base aioli and then added in some tropical flavors. OH DEAR LORD! This aioli was over the TOP insane!
These chicken strips were so incredibly good that I literally could not stop eating them!
They were crispy and crunchy; sweet and juicy!
I could have baked these (and will post that recipe soon) but I wanted to eat NOW, not in 20 minutes. LOL Since I opted to fry them in coconut oil (which is like the best stuff EVER!), I didn’t feel too guilty about eating fried foods.
I made 2 versions of these – regular panko and the vanilla gluten free panko. I’ll be honest, I loved the regular panko ones but the vanilla gluten free batch… OVER THE TOP incredible! That hint of vanilla and slight sweetness complimented the coconut so incredibly well. I HIGHLY recommend using that even if you don’t have gluten intolerance. I don’t but I love this stuff!
Yeah, I almost shared this with Mr. Fantabulous…
… almost
… he kinda didn’t see the plate of them in pure sight in the fridge hid behind the watermelon, under the tray of cold cuts and wrapped in foil. I guess his X-Ray vision wasn’t working eh? *wink*
The best part … dipping it in that Tropical Sriracha Aioli!
OH DEAR SWEET BABY JESUS!!! It’s sweet and spicy (like me.. HAHA). It’s cool but it packs some major heat. But the marriage of flavors it creates in your mouth is just pure bliss!
Coconut Panko Crusted Chicken Strips – can be Gluten Free!
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Ingredients
- 7 1/2 cups Vanilla Chex Cereal
Instructions
- Make the Vanilla Panko crumbs.
- Place in a bowl and set aside.
- In a food processor grind 3/4 cup of the Panko until it’s a powder.
- Place ground panko, salt and pepper in a shallow bowl and gently mix.
- Beat eggs in a second shallow bowl.
- Combine remaining panko and coconut flakes in a third shallow bowl.
- Set up an assembly line and dredge the chicken in the ground panko, shaking off any excess.
- Transfer to the beaten egg and turn to coat. You want the powder to be covered in eggs.
- Allow the excess to drip back into the bowl.
- Place the chicken in the panko coconut mixture and coat evenly. Press to adhere.
- Heat 1/4 cup oil in a large heavy skillet or a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat.
- Working in batches, cook the chicken until golden brown ~4-6 minutes.
- Flip and cook until golden brown. ~4 minutes.
- Transfer to the cooling rack on the pan.
- Add more oil if needed and repeat until all the chicken is cooked.
- Serve with Tropical Sriracha Aioli.
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