Coconut Flour Chicken Bites

I really should learn by now that if I am going to post a food pic on Facebook or Instagram that I should already have the recipe on my blog. 

Trouble is though that I make just a lot of stuff on the fly. I know enough kitchen tricks and have enough skillz that I have a general idea of how something is going to turn out. Sometimes I'll start off with a legit recipe from a book and will often just say get the book, lol. Then over time I'll fiddle with the recipe until I've made it my own. More of this, less of that, kind of thing.

These chicken bites are something that I cobbled together. Normally I used a paleo chicken finger recipe that I adapted off of another blog (get the original here) but I didn't have chicken breast or arrowroot flour.

It seems though some of the best things though just seem to happen. They were GREAT!

Coconut Flour Chicken Bites

8-10 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk (dairy, almond, coconut)
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/4 almond flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
black pepper to taste
1 cup lard

-Cut the chicken breasts into bite size-ish pieces - that's a technical term by the way ;)
-Put the lard into a large high walled frying pan, melt, and bring to temperature
-Beat the eggs and milk together
-Put the chicken pieces into the egg and milk mixture
-In a larger bowl mix together the coconut flour, almond flour, sea salt, and black pepper
-Take the kitchen pieces from the egg mix and into the coconut flour mix and toss them around until evenly coated.
-Put 10 pieces or so of chicken into the hot oil at a time, flipping over, until cooked, usually about 5-8 minutes depending on their size. Repeat until all are fried.

**Note: you can add other spices if you like, sometimes I'll do a 1/2 tsp dried basil or parsley, or 1/4 tsp paprika. Play with it to find what you like.

Honey Drill Drizzle

I am a HUGE honey dill fan, fan of sauces in general, but honey dill is perfect for these. Now the regular honey dill has a lot of nasty things in it so I decided to make my own AND use as a drizzle instead of a dip so I was eating WAY less. Win/Win. It's all about the wins!
2 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp dried dill

Mix the two together. Using a spoon lightly drizzle over your chicken bites.
See? EASY!

Now you may or may not be wondering about the lard. Yes, I do deep fry these, no, I don't have them multiple times a week. I also choose lard versus vegetable oil or canola oil. I personally prefer to use oils that haven't been highly processed and am a fan of natural animal fats. It's what I rock and how I roll. That being said you could use coconut oil (but I'm too chincy to do that).

Let me know if you try them in the comments below!

Tex-Mex Ranch Chicken

I have always loved tex-mex kind of dishes. A little spicy, a little cheesy. Plus I have always loved sauces and dips and things like that. Sadly though a lot of that time that means lots of fats, calories, and carbs. 

Solution?

My tex-mex ranch chicken recipe. So easy to make and very tasty. You can serve it over greens/salad. You could have veggies and quinoa or rice on the side. Prep takes only 5 minutes and bakes in about 35.

On the 21 Day Fix this meal would account for:

2 Green (greens, carrots, tex-mex sauce)

1 Red (chicken)

1 Blue (cheese)

1 Orange (ranch)

STEPS:

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350

Step 2: Make the tex-mex sauce (recipe below)

Step 3: Pour sauce over chicken

Step 4: Shred cheese

Step 5: Sprinkle cheese over chicken

Step 6: Bake in oven for 35 minutes

Step 7: Plate over greens or with chosen sides and put rockin' spicy ranch on top (link to recipe below) 

Tex -Mex Sauce 

In a saucepan over medium heat combine the following:

1 can tomato paste

1/2 cup water

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp chilli powder

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 cup finely chopped green pepper

Warm until just simmering.

You can find the recipe for my rockin' spicy ranch here. 

Let me know if you try this recipe in the comment section and what you think of it. It's a newbie of mine but I'm pretty happy with it. Hope you all think it ROCKS too. 

Chilli Chicken in Sauce

I have another recipe for you! Another quick and easy one too. This one I came up with one evening where I really wasn't sure what I was going to do. It was immediately a favourite. 

Chilli Chicken

1 tbsp olive oil

handful of mushrooms equally sliced

1/2 onion thinly sliced

1/3 green pepper thinly sliced

1/2 clove of garlic finely chopped

4 skinless boneless chicken thighs cut up in equal pieces

1 tsp chilli powder

1/2 tsp cumin

pinch oregano

1/4 tsp salt

few cracks of black pepper

1 cup tomato sauce

Fry the veggies up in the olive oil. Once they are tender toss the chicken in to fry. When chicken is half cooked put the spices, salt, and pepper in and mix well. Pour in the cup of tomato sauce. Let it simmer until the chicken is cooked through.

*If you get your rice on first, get the veggies cut and rolling, then toss in the chicken and follow the rest of the chilli chicken steps everything should come out in about 30 minutes from start to finish depending on how smoothly you work.*

This goes great served with rice and steamed broccoli and carrots. I seem to be on a broccoli and carrot kick lately. I go through phases. I'm routine yet random that way.