Buffalo Chicken Strips

Ok, so this is last week's ingredient, and I made them on Saturday night, but forgot to blog them. So here it is, technically just two days late. And, like always, I forgot to take a picture. When you have a starving family of 7, taking pictures of your food is last on your mind, trust me!

Buffalo Chicken Strips

1/2 c milk
1/2 tsp honey
1/8 tsp Tabasco sauce
1.5 lbs chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch strips
1/c crushed corn flakes
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp tarragon
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Conbine milk, honey and Tabasco sauce. Add chicken strips and marinate at least 10 minutes. Combine cornflakes, ginger, thyme, tarragon, and cayenne. Dip the chicken strips into the cornflake mixture. Place the chicken on a greased jelly roll pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 mins until crispy. Serve with bleu cheese dressing, if desired.

Cook's notes: I didn't have tarragon or cayenne pepper (last minute meal), so I substituted parsley and chili powder. I wouldn't reccommend this, as I think it lost something in translation. I also doubled the cornflake mixture, as it never seems to be enough, but I would actually triple it if you make this. I ran out and had to make more. My family loved these. They tasted like chicken nuggets, with a tang. Even my mostly-vegetarian daughter ate these, and we had no leftovers, which is rare.

Hot Chicken Salad

I thought this recipe looked yummy, so I decided to try it. It even includes water chestnuts!

Sorry, I forgot to take a picture. Just think of a casserole with corn flakes on the top. That is what it looked like.

Hot Chicken Salad
from Nancy's Kitchen

2 cups chicken, cooked
1 cup rice, cooked
1 cup celery
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 teaspoon chopped onion
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1 can Cream of Chicken soup, undiluted
1 cup water chestnuts

1/2 stick margarine
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1 cup crushed corn flakes

Mix all ingredients next day put in casserole. In separate pan melt margarine, and stir in crushed corn flakes and slivered almonds. Spoon over casserole. Bake for 35 minutes, uncovered, in 350 degree oven.

****The instructions were a little weird to me, so I just mixed all of the ingredients in the first group together, put them in a 9x13 pan, covered that with the ingredients in the second group (that I had mixed together)and cooked according to the instructions. I used butter instead of margarine and canned mushrooms instead of fresh ones. I chopped up the water chestnuts (my husband doesn't like them very much, so I thought maybe they would be more tolerable to him in little pieces).

I give this recipe 3 1/2 stars. I didn't totally love it, but my sons actually ate it and my husband had about 5 servings (minus the mushrooms).

Cornflake Chicken Strips

I got the recipe here.

Crap, I just lit the kitchen on fire. Thank goodness for fire extinguishers. Ahem.*

Ingredients
4 cups crushed plain cornflakes
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon Lawry seasoning salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
(I added garlic powder too)
2 eggs
1 tablespoon water
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in thin strips
Vegetable oil
Instructions
1. Mix together cornflakes, flour, seasoning salt, pepper and poultry seasoning.
2. Beat eggs with water. Dip chicken strips in egg mixture and then roll in cornflake mixture. Press mixture firmly onto chicken to coat well.
3. Pour oil into a large skillet to a depth of about 2 inches. Heat oil to 250F. Fry chicken strips 6 to 8 minutes or until done. Serve warm with your favorite dipping sauce. Serves 6.


NOTES: I only used 3 chicken breasts and most of the coating was gone. I'd measured out 4 c of corn flakes and then crushed them; I'm assuming the recipe really wanted 4 c of already crushed corn flakes.

Hubby has been craving fried chicken, so I decided on this rather than on cookies (which I always crave) or anything else I found recipes for. I've never had cornflake fried chicken ... so ... yeah. Hubby loved them and asked for more (and probably ate 2/3 of them by himself). Kiddo is flu-ish and didn't touch hers (she was feeling better earlier today but got sick again, ugh). I rather enjoyed them too.

I only give it 3 stars because I am too lazy to fry anything for anyone who doesn't live here. hahahaha.

*I'm exaggerating; I had a whole chicken roasting in the oven as well and the pan was apparently too small because it dripped all over the bottom of the oven and then smoked like mad. We didn't have to use the fire extinguisher, but I feel silly anyway since I was typing this post and hubby caught it. lol.

Challenge Ingredient: CORN FLAKES

Good evening everyone! Are you ready for a new challenge this week? Today's ingredient is CORN FLAKES.

Ironically, I chose this for my challenge ingredient because I had made some really good cookies a few weeks ago, an ingredient of which is corn flakes, and I had the rest of the box leftover, and in need of using up (since I don't like this particular cereal for breakfast). Well, my husband finished the box off this week. (Side note: if you're going to make the cookies I linked to, only make 1/2 a recipe of the frosting. Or double the cookies.)

Corn flakes cereal has a mildly amusing history to it. Read on:

The [Kellogg] brothers invented many foods that were made from grains, including a coffee substitute and a type of granola, which they forced through rollers and rolled into long sheets of dough. One day, after cooking some wheat, the men were called away. When they finally returned, the wheat had become stale. They decided to force the tempered grain through the rollers anyway.

Surprisingly, the grain did not come out in long sheets of dough. Instead each wheat berry was flattened and came out as a thin flake. The brothers baked the flakes and were delighted with their new invention. They realized they had discovered a new and delicious cereal, but they had no way of knowing they had accidentally invented a whole new industry. Will Keith Kellogg eventually opened his own cereal business, and its most famous product is still sold today.

[Source: Corn Flakes History]

Corn flakes can be used in sweet dishes (like cookies or bars that need texture), or in more savory dishes, such as a coating on chicken, or topping on the ever popular LDS "funeral potatoes."

Recipes should be posted by midnight Saturday. Happy cooking!