Chicken strips for grown ups

Originally I had planned on making a piccata or marsala with the chicken breast I had in the fridge but I forgot to go to the grocery store to pick up mushrooms on my way home. I was going to do a basic scallopini but I remembered a recipe I had seen for healthy almond-crusted chicken fingers, so I made those instead. Okay, let’s be honest, mine were more like chicken chunks. Anyway, they were GOOD. I made them with romano-basil orzo and roasted asparagus. Not your typical complement to chicken strips but my asparagus was going bad (I know, right? Hard to believe since I use the stuff practically every day) and I had to use up some basil before it, too, went bad.

This is the recipe I used.

I halved the recipe but I just used a whole egg rather than wasting 2 yolks. Also, I didn’t add any oil to the coating mixture. This wasn’t really a conscious thing as I just misread the recipe. What I did, however, was pan fry the strips to brown up before moving them to the oven to finish cooking (so the cooking time was a little less). So, nutritionally, it ended up being about the same–just 142 calories/serving.

For the orzo, I melted a little butter, added 1/2 cup orzo and cooked it a few minutes. Then I added a cup of chicken broth, brought it to a boil, reduced it to a simmer and let it finish cooking (exactly like rice). At the very end I tossed in about 1/4 cup pecorino romano and a tablespoon or two of fresh basil.