Oven Baked "Cookie" Chicken

I'm guessing the name of this recipe has you wondering...oh gross, she breaded that chicken in crushed cookies, but come on. Would I do that? Now that I think about it...maybe. But not today. I called it "cookie" chicken because the most amazing thing happened when I baked it. My house smelled just like chocolate chip cookies. And I don't mean the flaxseed, avocado chocolate chip cookies my house smells like all the time. I mean full on Toll House goodness. When my husband got home from work he gave me this weird look and then got really excited that I was baking "real" cookies. I had to let him down that it was our dinner, but once we sat down to eat he was over the disappointment. This chicken is so good. Our daughter even asked if we could have it again tomorrow which is about the highest compliment she gives when it comes to food. She even chose to eat the chicken over the fruit on her plate. That's big stuff in our house.

The secret ingredient in this recipe is...Fiber One Honey Squares.

Start by crushing 1cup of Fiber One Honey Squares in a ziploc bag. I used my rolling pin. You want it pretty finely crushed, but not pulverized. Next line a baking sheet with foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray.

Now set up your breading station. You will need two bowls, one for your egg whites and one for the crushed Fiber One. I added a few twists of the black pepper grinder and a few twists of the sea salt grinder to the egg whites before I dipped the chicken. 

The cereal needs a little help sticking but not a ton. I think it works best to dip the chicken in the egg whites on both sides and then hold it over the bowl for a few seconds and let the excess drip off. Then lay it into crushed cereal and press gently. Flip the chicken over and repeat with all your chicken. I had a very tiny amount of cereal left so I just sprinkled it on the chicken anywhere it needed a little more. Don't waste the sweet stuff.

If you let a lot the excess egg drip into your dry cereal it will glob up, get soggy and not stick to your chicken, which is sad.

The main problem I have with most chicken recipes that claim to be both baked and crunchy is that they never actually get crunchy. That is just the nature of the beast. If you want real crunch, you have to fry. If you fry all the time your pants get too small. Bake people, bake. I wanted to get this as crispy as I could. I decided to experiment. I was trying to figure out how to get some caramelization on the top of the chicken. A tiny drizzle of agave nectar did the trick. It only takes a tiny bit. I have the recipe calling for 1 tbsp, but I didn't use quite all of it. Close, but not all.

 

As you can see, it's just a very slight drizzle of agave

Lastly, pop it in a 400 degree oven for 35 minutes. You may need to adjust cooking time if the chicken breasts you are using are really thick. 40 minutes is usually sufficient for most packaged fresh chicken. If you choose to use chicken tenders you'll want to reduce the time to between 20-30 minutes.

My whole family loved this recipe, plus it's super easy so I'm sure it will become part of our rotation. I can totally see the leftover chicken on top of a spinach salad with strawberries and goat cheese for lunch this weekend. Yum!

Enjoy guys. This is a good one.

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees

Oven Baked "Cookie" Chicken:
1lb chicken breasts (worked perfectly with 4 smaller breasts)
1/4c egg whites
1c Fiber One Honey Squares, Crushed
1tbsp Agave Nectar
salt and pepper to taste