I am always getting consistent requests for 3 different foods from my son. The boy certainly knows what he likes. He loves tacos, pizza & chicken fingers. We eat a lot of tacos & pizza here, but chicken fingers require a little more work from scratch. Over the past 4 years, I have tried out a number of breading mixtures & methods. I will outline them below.
One of the first ways that I attempted to make chicken fingers was by using Ener-G Bread Crumbs, cornmeal & seasonings. I dipped the chicken strips in the egg and then the breading mixture & then fried or baked in the oven. While this method & these ingredients work okay, it isn’t our favorite way to eat chicken fingers. I have found that the Ener-G Bread Crumbs work better in meatballs or meatloaf than in breading. Ener-G Bread Crumbs can be found in many grocery stores as well as health food stores & on Ener-G’s website.
Another method I have tried is using a recipe that actually came from the Bisquick box, which we all know is not gluten-free. You can view the recipe here. As I mention in the recipe, I use Pamela’s Baking & Pancake Mix in place of the Bisquick. This is a very good recipe, however, it is lacking some of the crunches that are found in the two methods that are coming up. Pamela’s can be found in most grocery stores, as well as on Amazon.com.
When General Mills converted their Rice Chex recipe to be gluten-free, it made a lot of people happy. Not only did it open a new door for breakfast, but homemade chex mix and breading! This recipe turned out fantastic & they disappeared so fast that I didn’t even get a picture of the finished product! This method is one of the top requested methods for chicken fingers in our house. Rice Chex can be found in grocery stores and on Amazon.com in bulk.
Lastly, I just recently tried the brand new, Kinnikinnick Panko Style Bread Crumbs. I followed the directions on the back of the box for breading chicken and while the chicken & breading had an amazing crisp, like that of a gluten-filled breading, there was not a lot of flavors. I did add additional seasonings to the Panko Style Bread Crumbs, but I guess it was not enough. I am usually very conservative when it comes to salt in recipes, and use other spices for flavor, but these bread crumbs definitely need salt. I went to read some reviews on the crumbs to see if it was just me, and while I didn’t find any reviews on the Panko Bread Crumbs, I did find some on the Crispy Chicken Coating Mix. The consensus there was also that there was no flavor. So, it looks like if you are looking for the crunch & texture of a great breading, this is your best choice, however, remember to season liberally. Kinnikinnick Panko Style Bread Crumbs can be purchased on Kinnikinnick’s website.
Here is a picture of the meal I created using the Kinnikinnick Panko Style Bread Crumbs:
Do you have a favorite bread crumb or breading mixture recipe? Have you tried the new Kinnikinnick Panko Style Bread Crumbs?
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