Macadamia Coconut Crusted Chicken Tenders are a flavorful alternative to fried chicken. Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Paleo friendly and loaded with protein and healthy fats to ignite your metabolism.
My husband has an unnatural obsession with fried chicken. When we are traveling and we pass a Popeye Chicken he will get this crazy gleam in his eye and say let’s stop and have some chicken, like we don’t have Popeye Chicken 15 minutes from our house. Not sure what it is about stopping on the freeway in a truck stop Popeye Chicken, I mean YUCK! The reality is fried chicken is something we have a few times a year, not something that is on our regular menu rotation. 
To appease my husbands crazy fried chicken side, while keeping his heart side healthy I like to come up with fun baked chicken recipes that imitate fried chicken, without all those heart clogging calories. Not the same, but close.
I came up with this after eating a handful of macadamia nuts, which I love. They are loaded with healthy fats and are perfect to pair with protein, helping to jump start our metabolisms.
The crust is light and crunchy, with tons of flavor that help to keep the chicken moist while baking.
I enjoyed mine drizzled in honey while the boys liked dipping theirs in a sweet chili sauce. How do you think you will enjoy yours? Plain? Honey? Spice or something else?
If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment below or take a photo and tag me on Instagram or Twitter with #ahealthylifeforme.
Macadamia Coconut Crusted Chicken Tenders
Ingredients
- 1 cups coconut flour
- 2 large eggs beaten
- 11/2 cups macadamia nuts processed to a crumble
- 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1 pound chicken tenders pounded out to 1/4"
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- coconut oil for pan-frying
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°
- Line a rimmed baking sheet or broiler pan with foil for easy clean up.
- Spray a broiler pan rack or cooking rack with non stick organic spray. Set aside
- Add the flour and eggs to separate shallow baking dishes. In a third shallow baking dish, combine the crushed macadamia nuts and shredded coconut
- Season the chickens with salt and pepper.
- Dredge the chicken by first dipping each into the flour, then in the beaten eggs and finally into the macadamia-coconut mixture pressing the macadamia nut mix into chicken {the mix will not completely cover the tenders}.
- Line up chicken tenders on rack pan without overlapping.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, until chicken internal temperature is 165°
- Remove and serve with a sweet chili sauce or honey.
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Sometimes I crave fried chicken too, but I rarely give in to those cravings. Baking chicken is the way go! I really love the macadamia nuts as a crust!
A good crust on a baked chicken can elevate it to awesome!
Nice and healthy! Love, love the macadamia-coconut combo! Bet this tastes amazing, especially with the sweet-chili sauce!
Thanks Patricia, they are moist and delicious tenders.
This chicken sounds and looks amazing! I’m pretty sure I would have a hard time deciding between the honey and the chili sauce – both sound so good!
Thanks Sharon! Both the honey and chili sauce were good!