Tasty Tuesday - Coconut Chicken

One of the recipes we made this week was one I have been wanting to try for awhile! I am a coconut shrimp LOVER! However, shrimp is costly and because of the price, it is not something we consistently have on hand. I stumbled across a recipe on Pinterest for Coconut Chicken, which is the exact same idea as coconut shrimp, but with a much more affordable price tag!! Here is the original recipe - Coconut Chicken by Budget Bytes. I really like the blog that this recipe is from. I have cooked a few recipes from there and they have all been yummy. When I made this dish, we were staying at my parents house. My parents were kind enough to pick up all of the ingredients for the meal; and I had plenty of babysitters to watch the little nugget as I cooked! My mom prepared the breading station; and I sliced the chicken. I am really crazy about slicing my chicken. I use a pair of kitchen scissors and go to town cutting off any fat, vein, or "weird" spot that I see. I despise biting into a piece of chicken and getting a grizzly or chewy piece. I mean business when I prepare my chicken! I cut off all the yuckiness and then sliced it diagonally into strips.

 Raw chicken does not look appetizing in real life or photographs .. yuck..

Breading the chicken was fun! I first dipped it in a flour salt mixture, then an egg and coconut mixture, and lastly panko and shredded coconut. We ended up using much more than the recipe called for, as you usually do when breading anything. My fingers got all gloppy and I continuously washed them so that the breading would stay separated and not all chunky. The end result looked really good!

 This recipe called for Sweet Chili sauce. My parents picked this one up at the store. It was absolutely delicious! We would definitely recommend it. It was sweet with just the right amount of spicy kick!

My first batch of chicken did NOT come out well. I turned the heat up really high which is what I generally do when frying something, however some of these chicken pieces were really thick. I ended up burning the outsides and leaving the insides raw. Ya.. not a success. So, I took a break and left the next round to my mom while I nursed the munchkin! 

I decided to give it another go afterwards and the next batch came out great! You want to keep it on a lower heat in order to cook the chicken through without burning the batter on the outside. The rest of the chicken came out perfectly golden brown - crispy on the outside and moist on the inside! 

We ate our dinner with sweet potato fries and a side of the sweet chili sauce! It was a serious hit!! Everybody cleared the pan and wished for more! We loved it. I would definitely recommend this recipe. It is a total pain to make, but definitely worth it!!