Crispy Baked Chicken Fingers

Posted by: Maggie

Surely some of you are thinking, "Chicken fingers? Has Maggie regressed to childhood?" I assure you that I have not, and I'm here to tell you how to turn a traditional kid's meal into a fancy grown-lady meal in 4 easy steps:

1) Make it from scratch. Who needs dinosaur-shaped mystery chicken? Not you! I made these last night after only eating a granola bar all day, and was really tempted to just buy frozen chicken fingers. I'm so glad I didn't. These take about 20 minutes worth of effort, and the results are a million times tastier than the frozen kind.

2) Serve with a snazzy dipping sauce - not ketchup. I like ketchup as much as the next gal, but my favorite honey mustard or some homemade BBQ sauce will elevate chicken fingers from kid food, to fancy grown-lady cuisine.

3) Enjoy your chicken fingers while watching something wildly inappropriate, and meant for grown-ladies on TV. 20 years ago, I would've eaten chicken fingers while watching Full House or Clarissa Explains it all. Last night, I enjoyed them while finally watching the first two episodes of Girls. You think Clarissa Darling had problems? Girlfriend had nothing on Hannah Horvath.

4) Last but not least, wash your chicken fingers down with a beer. Duh.

Here's what you'll need:

2 cups panko breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 large egg whites
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
Cooking spray
3 boneless chicken breasts, cut into 3/4 inch wide strips (I trimmed the excess fat off mine, sliced off about an inch from the flat, narrow end of the breast, and cut into 4 even strips.)

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. In a large skillet, combine the panko and canola oil. Turn the heat on to medium-high, and toast breadcrumbs for 8-10 minutes, until golden-brown. Stir frequently to ensure that they don't burn! Transfer the crumbs to a shallow dish and set aside.

In a separate shallow dish, mix together flour, garlic powder, salt, and cayenne, and set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together egg whites, water, Dijon mustard, and thyme.

Place a wire cooling rack over a baking sheet, and spray lightly with cooking spray.

Dredge one chicken strip in flour, then egg mixture, and lastly in the breadcrumbs, shaking off excess in between steps. Place coated chicken on prepared rack, and repeat with remaining strips.

If you're like me and find breading food to be a colossal pain in the tookus, here are some tips:

- Leave the water slowly running while you bread the chicken. Yes, it's wasteful, but it really helps if you rinse the egg and panko clumps from your fingers in between breading each piece. The reason I suggest leaving the sink on is to avoid cross contamination between the chicken and the faucet.

- Use 2 dishes for the breadcrumbs. Keep the majority of the breadcrumbs in a larger dish, and before breading each strip, transfer a small handful to a saucer, and bread the strip there. That way, you can avoid getting big clumps of egg mixed in with all the breadcrumbs.

After all the chicken is breaded, spray the tops lightly with cooking spray. Bake in preheated oven to 12-16 minutes, and serve immediately.

(Update on 5/1: These are excellent leftover! Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes on a foil-lined baking sheet. Flip over halfway through.)

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Source: Adapted from America's Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook, via Annie's Eats

BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Posted by: Maggie

As promised yesterday, I'm not leaving you with a BBQ sauce recipe and no meat to slather it on! 

My birthday was last week, and my mom got me a beautiful, green, 8-quart, Le Creuset pot. I knew I needed to make something extra delicious to christen it, and after much internal debate between short ribs and pulled pork, I settled on the pulled pork.

Don't be intimidated by the fact that this recipe takes 6 hours - most of that is inactive time, and this recipe is actually extremely simple. Just pop this in the oven early on a Saturday afternoon, and it will be ready in time for dinner; plus you'll have lots of delicious leftovers!

Here's what you'll need:

For the dry rub:

2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons black pepper
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons paprika
1/2 tablespoon cayenne

For the pork:

4 pound shoulder pork roast
2 cups apple juice
1 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire
1/2 tablespoon garlic powder

For serving:

Hamburger buns
Homemade Kansas City-Style BBQ Sauce

Rinse the pork under cool running water, and pat dry. Combine all the dry rub ingredients in a medium bowl. Sprinkle the dry rub all over the roast, pressing into the pork to throughly coat. Place pork on a plate, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Combine liquid ingredients and garlic powder in a large bowl, and pour into a large dutch oven. Place pork in the dutch oven, cover tightly with foil, and place lid on top. Roast for 4 hours in preheated oven, or until the pork is fork tender and shreds easily. Every hour, brush the roast with cooking liquid.

Remove from oven and shred with two forks when the roast is cool enough to handle. Serve on hamburger buns with BBQ sauce.

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Source: Adapted from Paula Deen

Homemade Kansas City-Style BBQ Sauce

Posted by: Maggie

Who here loves BBQ? I do, I do!

Actually, I was kind of indifferent towards it until Jeff and I got together 3 years ago. It's one of his favorite foods, and I learned to love it too.

I didn't realize for a long time how many different variations of barbeque sauce existed, and that if you go to a BBQ joint in South Carolina, Texas, or Missouri you're going to be getting drastically different versions of what they all claim as barbeque sauce. In South Carolina, they have a vinegar and mustard-based sauce, while the Texas kind is thin, slightly spicy, and not sweet (at least based on my delicious experience at Hill Country in DC!)

I've tried quite a few varieties, but my favorite by a landslide is the thick and sweet Kansas City-style sauce. I was on a Sweet Baby Ray's kick for awhile, and then I started making the Neely's recipe. It's super delicious, but I wanted something darker with more depth of flavor. I discovered this recipe last week, and with a couple very minor tweaks I knew I had perfection on my hands.

If you're wondering what I put this sauce on, you'll have to come back tomorrow! I decided to break up the sauce and meat portions of the recipe so that it wouldn't be too long.

Here's what you'll need:

2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups ketchup
1/2 cup yellow mustard
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup steak sauce
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons tamarind paste*
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely minced

In a small bowl, mix together chili powder, pepper, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together ketchup, mustard, vinegar, Worcestershire, lemon juice, steak sauce, molasses, honey, hot sauce, brown sugar, and tamarind paste.

In a large saucepan, heat canola oil over medium heat. Add onion, and saute for 5 minutes. Add garlic, and saute for 30 seconds. Add the chili powder mixture, and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. This helps to release their oil-soluble flavors and gives the sauce more depth. Add the wet ingredients, and simmer for 15 minutes with the lid off. The sauce will thicken during this time. Taste the sauce, and adjust seasonings. I ended up adding an extra squirt of both honey and molasses since I like my BBQ sauce sweet.

If you don't want chunks of onion and garlic in your sauce, pass the sauce through a mesh strainer. I just left them in since I liked the texture it added.

*This is optional, since it may be difficult for you to find. I located it either in the Thai or Indian section at Whole Foods (I forget which since I spent about 20 minutes in the aisle trying to find it!), and the jar looks like this.

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Source: Adapted from AmazingRibs.com (a fantastic resource for all things BBQ - I spent a long time reading his site!)