Chicken Fingers with Crunchy Almond Crust
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Serves: serves 4
 
Crunchy delicious oven fried chicken coated with Panko bread crumbs and your favorite flavor of Blue Diamond Almonds. The perfect pick up game day snack! Active time with this recipe is actually minimal. Prep Time listed includes 30 minutes to soak the chicken while you prep the crunchy almond crust.
Ingredients
  • 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken tenders
  • 1½ cups buttermilk
  • ½ cup Blue Diamond Wasabi & Soy Sauce Almonds (or the Blue Diamond flavor of your choice!)
  • ½ cup plain Panko bread crumbs
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • For the Honey Wasabi Dipping Sauce:
  • ¼ cup plain Greek yogurt
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • ½ teaspoon wasabi paste
  • Special Equipment Needed:
  • a blender or food processor (see note)
  • nonstick cooking spray
Instructions
  1. Place the chicken tenders in a medium bowl. Pour the buttermilk over the chicken and stir to coat. Cover and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
  2. While the chicken soaks, preheat the oven to 400°F and spray a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.
  3. Place the almonds in the blender or food processor and pulse until coarse crumbs are formed. Don't get too carried away or you'll have almond paste on your hands instead of crunchy crushed almonds for a crust. Add the Panko bread crumbs and the kosher salt and pulse once more to combine.
  4. Pour the crumbs into a shallow dish. One piece at a time take the chicken from the buttermilk, shake off any excess liquid, and then coat it all over with the crumbs.
  5. Place the chicken in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, flip the pieces and bake for 15 more minutes.
  6. To make the dipping sauce just stir together the Greek yogurt, honey and wasabi paste until smooth.
Notes
1. If you do not have a blender or food processor, you can grab a good sharp knife and very finely chop your almonds. It's a little more time consuming but it can be done!
2. I find wasabi paste in the International aisle of my regular grocery store near the soy sauce. The one i used in this recipe is HERE
Recipe by Sugar Dish Me at https://www.sugardishme.com/chicken-fingers-crunchy-almond-crust/