I don't like recipes that are too complicated. When I married a chef I learned a few tricks to make dishes seem like I spent a whole day in the kitchen. This will wow your family or dinner guests. To coat this chicken you are going to use tortilla chips. Yes that's right, like the kind you use for eating chips and salsa. You can even use corn chips. Have you ever had someone leave a bag of chips open and they lost their crunch? My kid named "Not Me" is always leaving things open. Don't throw them away! Turn them into crumbs to use for coating. This goes for potato chips too.
Now, this is not an authentic Mexican recipe. It is just an homage to tomatillos.
- 4 chicken breasts
- 1 cup flour
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 egg
- 1 cup of Tortilla chips crumbed
- Cooking spray
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- Shredded Mozzarella cheese (get the skim milk low fat kind to save calories).
- Diced tomatoes
- Green Salsa (see recipe on blog entry date 07-Aug-09)
- Cooked white rice. (Whole wheat Basmati rice is a healthy choice and just as good).
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Take 3 different bowls.
In one bowl add the flour, paprika, salt and pepper. Mix with a fork.
In the 2nd bowl mix the buttermilk and the egg. If you want to save some more calories you can separate the egg and just use the egg white.
In the third bowl add the tortilla chip crumbs.
Spray a sheet pan with the cooking spray and set aside. If you have an oven safe saute pan you can skip this.
Take the chicken breasts and remove any little pieces of fat that are still attached. Run then quickly under a bit of cold water to rinse, then pat them dry with paper towel. Discard the paper towels. Take a breast and dip it in the seasoned flour to lightly coat, then dip it into the buttermilk/egg mixture, then coat the breast with the crumbed tortilla chips. Set aside on a plate. Repeat with each chicken breast.
Wash your hands after handling the chicken to avoid salmonella contamination.
Take a saute pan and add the olive oil. Heat to medium. Take a spatula and transfer each breast into the pan. Cook for approximately 5 minutes to brown each side. If you have the oven safe pan, place it in the oven. If not, transfer the browned chicken breasts to the sheet pan and put into the oven. Bake for another 10 to 15 minutes. You want to make sure there isn't any pink in the middle. Cut into the center of the biggest breast to check for doneness. If it is not done, check every 2 minutes. You don't want to dry out the chicken breasts. Once the chicken is done, turn off the oven. Take out the chicken and sprinkle it with the mozzarella cheese and return to the oven just to melt the cheese.
To serve:
Place a chicken breast over a bed of rice. Top each breast with the green salsa and the diced tomatoes. You get that red, green and white color of the Mexican flag. Serve with a side fresh steamed green beans, or your veggie of choice.
My chef calls his version Southwest Chicken because he blends smoky chipotle chilis into his buttermilk mixture with a hand held blender. And for an even spicier punch, he uses Monterey Pepper Jack cheese instead of mozzarella. Give it a try too!
Remember the potato chips? Use potato crumbs instead of the tortilla chips, top with shredded cheddar cheese, BBQ sauce, and a couple of jalapeno slices and you have a TexMex dish. Serve with oven-roasted potatos and corn. A totally different meal.
Please let me know if you liked these recipes. Enjoy!
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