These crispy coconut chicken tenders come with a tropical pineapple sauce that’ll knock your socks off.
I know, because they were a huge hit at my house – even the picky eaters were gobbling this up! These bite-sized portions of crispy deliciousness are low carb, and gluten-free, so you can snack on them without any hint of guilt.
Most chicken tender recipes use breadcrumbs, loaded with gluten, for the outer coating. In today’s recipe, we’ll be swapping out the breadcrumbs and using unsweetened shredded coconut instead – creating perfectly crispy chicken tenders without the heavy gluten! Plus, we’re making a super simple pineapple sauce to go with the chicken, to create a sweet and savory blend.
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To make the chicken tenders, dredge the chicken strips in a mix of cayenne-seasoned coconut flour, dip them in eggs, and coat them in unsweetened shredded coconut. Drizzle a bit of coconut oil over the chicken strips to ensure that it turns a beautiful golden brown. Next, bake in a greased baking sheet until crispy all over, flipping halfway through.
For the pineapple sauce, bring the pineapple, coconut oil, coconut aminos, ginger, garlic, and water to a boil in a large skillet. Reduce the heat to low and let the ingredients simmer for a couple of minutes. Allow the sauce to cool before blending well to get a thick and chunky sauce. Garnish the chicken tenders with fresh chopped parsley, and serve it with the sauce sprinkled with cayenne powder.
Tips:
- If you don’t have coconut flour, you can easily substitute tapioca flour.
- If you don’t like spicy foods, leave out the cayenne powder and replace with garlic powder or onion powder.
Spicy Pineapple Chicken Tenders Recipe
Spicy Pineapple Chicken Tenders Recipe
Felicia Lim- Baking sheet
- Three shallow dishes
- Large skillet
- Electric blender
For the Chicken Tenders:
- 1 lb chicken strips
- ½ cup coconut flour
- 2 t cayenne pepper
- ½ t salt
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
- 3 T coconut oil + more for drizzling over
- Chopped fresh parsley, for garnishing
For the Pineapple Sauce:
- 2 cups cubed pineapple (either fresh or canned is fine)
- 1 T coconut oil
- 1 T coconut aminos
- 1 T grated ginger
- 3 large garlic cloves, minced
- ½ cup water
- Dash of cayenne powder, for sprinkling over the sauce
- Preheat the oven to 400 °F and lightly grease a baking sheet with coconut oil.
- Rinse the chicken strips and use paper towels to dry them.
- In a shallow dish, mix the coconut flour, cayenne powder, and salt to combine.
- In another shallow dish, break the eggs and beat well. Pour the shredded coconut into a third shallow dish.
- Lightly coat the chicken strips in the coconut flour mixture, making sure to shake off any excess flour. Then dip the chicken strips in the beaten eggs before coating them in the shredded coconut.
- Place the coconut-coated chicken strips in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet, leaving at least 2 inches between each piece of chicken. Drizzle a bit of coconut oil over the chicken strips.
- Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown on both sides, flipping over halfway through.
- While the chicken is baking, prepare the pineapple sauce. Combine the coconut oil, coconut aminos, cubed pineapple, grated ginger, minced garlic, and water in a large skillet.
- Bring the ingredients to a boil before reducing to a simmer for a couple of minutes. Remove the skillet from heat, allow the ingredients to cool, and then process the ingredients in an electric blender until smooth.
- Sprinkle a dash of cayenne powder over the pineapple sauce. Serve with the crispy coconut chicken tenders garnished with chopped fresh parsley.
Looking for Paleo ingredients? Here are a few we’d recommend:
Coconut flour (Nutiva)
Cold pressed coconut oil (Viva Naturals)
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John Romaniello & Adam Bornstein on Engineering The Alpha
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