Rice Crispy Chicken

A couple days ago I received a little 12 pack of recipe cards "starter kit" from The Great American Recipe company. Sort of along the lines of the 12 DVDs for .01¢ deals, where you sign up and then you keep getting all kinds of recipe cards, eventually a binder, and other goodies, until you've paid $42,000 and forgot to cancel so they keep automatically shipping.

Needless to say, I didn't buy into it, but 2 or 3 of the recipes sparked my interest. This rice crispy cereal chicken was one. The recipe called for 8 chicken thighs, but since it's just the two of us, I cut it in half and only cooked 4 tonight.

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 cup rice crispy cereal
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 packet of ranch mix (they all have whey so I omitted and added 1 tsp. each of onion and garlic powder, plus generous sprinklings of salt and pepper)
2 egg whites, beaten (I just used one whole egg)

First, wash and trim the meat. Next, dunk them in the beaten eggs, and then coat them with the cereal mixture. Place onto a greased baking dish (or sheet) and bake for 25 minutes in a 350° oven until juices run clear.

Verdict? Yum!!! I'm a huge fan of dark meat, and this did not disappoint. It was really juicy, with great flavor and a terrific crunch. The cereal was not overwhelming as a coating, either. In fact, it was spaced pretty far apart, so you didn't feel like you were eating 1/2 chicken and 1/2 breading. Here's the picture from the little recipe card:


I served it alongside leftover homemade rice-a-roni from last night*. I just put a sprinkling of water in the storage container and microwaved it. The water helps it from getting dried out and crunchy during the re-heat.


Also, a revisit with creamed cabbage from TLC's Take Home Chef. I can't get enough of cabbage, lately! This time around I omitted the bacon because we didn't have any on hand and just added about a teaspoon of salt to make up for the flavor and saltiness of the missing bacon.


*Post to come!