Baked Chicken Fingers

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I’ve long said that if I owned a restaurant, the “kids'” menu would be nothing more than smaller portions of the regular menu. Why do people always assume that kids only eat grilled cheese sandwiches, chicken fingers, and pizza? I find it especially puzzling when you go to an ethnic restaurant and right after the Kung Pao Chicken or Enchiladas Suizas is a cheeseburger.

This is not to say that all “kid” food is bad, of course. In fact there are few times I would turn down a grilled cheese sandwich. I just get annoyed with the label – which is precisely why I didn’t pay much attention to the “kid friendly” section in the back of my America’s Test Kitchen Healthy Family cookbook for a while. But who doesn’t like chicken strips? They are well-received by adults (you should see the ratio of chicken strips and fries to anything else that comes out of our university’s cafeteria) and kids alike. And I’ll eat pretty much anything that I can bathe in buffalo sauce.

These chicken fingers use my favorite oven-baked breading method, which is toasting panko on the stovetop before dredging and baking the chicken. This ensures that the coating stays nice and crispy and is a method I’ve used many, many times.  It’s probably my favorite ATK tip to date. The flour-egg-panko coating helps to ensure everything stays on and no breading falls off. These chicken fingers come together pretty quickly and don’t take very long to bake, so they make a great weeknight meal. And did I mention you can serve them with buffalo sauce?

 

Baked Chicken Fingers

10 thoughts on “Baked Chicken Fingers

  1. There will be no kids menu ordering for my kids either…they are going to learn to eat what we eat!! I love that panko tip…so often I find myself frustrated that it won’t brown in the oven but from now on I’m going to toast it first!

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