When my daughter was little my youngest brother came to visit and she was delighted with his playfulness. At one point he was teasing her that he was going to nibble her little toes...or maybe fingers, so she called him Uncle the Wolf. I guess she decided that she was Red Riding Hood. He still has a delightful sense of humor but I'm not sure that anyone else calls him the Wolf.If you are in the mood to nibble some fingers, these chicken fingers are highly recommended by Sweetie. One of the nice things about them is that they are baked, not fried, so are fairly healthy. I was talking with my sis Natasha while I was making these so I completely missed the part about spraying the fingers with cooking spray. I did spray the rack both sides and had no trouble removing the fingers once they were cooked, so maybe the cooking spray isn't needed. With it you might have a crispier finish to the coating...ours was on the soft side, but very tasty anyway. That'll teach me to skip a step in the instructions! I had the last of them today for lunch (thats why the tangerine is in the photo) with no dipping sauce and they were just fine that way. They are very flavorful!
The dipping sauce calls for horseradish and I don't care for it, so I subbed cayenne pepper and that worked out well. They would probably also be fine with plain old bottled barbecue sauce, too.
The cute fingers are likely to be gobbled up by your kids ...and adults will love 'em too.
Baked Chicken Fingers with Pecans
From Southern Living Cookbook 2008
16 saltine crackers, finely crushed
½ cup pecans, toasted and ground
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons paprika
4 (6 oz) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 egg whites
Vegetable cooking spray
Honey-Mustard Dip
Stir together cracker crumbs, ground pecans, salt, pepper, paprika. Place in shallow dish or pie pan. Set aside.
Cut each breast half into 4 strips.
Whisk egg white until frothy; dip chicken strips into egg white, and dredge in saltine mixture.
Coat a metal rack with cooking spray and place in a broiler pan. Coat each chicken strip on each side with cooking spray; arrange on rack.
Bake in preheated 425 degree oven for 18 – 20 minutes or until browned.
Serve with Honey-Mustard Dip.
Honey-Mustard Dip
½ cup plain nonfat yogurt
¼ cup coarse-grained mustard
¼ cup honey
2 tablespoons prepared horseradish or 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)
Stir together all ingredients. Refrigerate any leftovers.
