SIMPLIFIED RECIPE | Quinoa crusted chicken

I’ve seen quinoa crusted chicken all over Pinterest! I keep pinning it and pinning it because they look delicious, but I’ve never actually made it… until now!

I went to the store and bought the ingredients! That’s step one to creating these healthy chicken tenders :)

The problem… I only looked at the ingredients, not the actual steps of how to make it :(

Wash quinoa, cook quinoa, dry quinoa, bake quinoa, grind quinoa up into a flour….. waaahhh??? Ain’t nobody got time for that!

After standing at my kitchen counter with cooked quinoa and slicked chicken breasts, cursing Pinterest recipes under my breath, I came up with a new plan. I would just tweak the recipe to work for me and my desire not to be in the kitchen all night long!

Aka: There will be no grinding up quinoa into flour or baking things 5 different times.

So, with all that said, below is my super simplified quinoa crusted chicken tenders :) They are just as delicious and 10 times easier, if you ask me!

Ingredients:

– Two chicken breasts
– One cup cooked quinoa
– Two egg whites
– Red pepper flakes (if you want it a tiny bit spicy)
– Pepper
– Salt

1) Spread cooked quinoa into a very thin layer on greased tin foil. Pop into the oven at 400 for 20 minutes to dry out the quinoa and toast it a bit.

2) Remove from the oven once the pieces turn golden. Break up any pieces that are stuck together and let it cool on the counter.

3) Slice your chicken breast into long thin strips (about four to five per breast).

4) To the baked quinoa, add some salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste.

5) Dip your strips into the egg whites, roll the chicken around in the quinoa, and place it on a greased baking sheet.

6) Pop into the oven for about 20 minutes (depending on how thick your tenders are) at 475 degrees. Remove once the quinoa has browned a bit more and the chicken is cooked through.

7) Pick your favorite dipping sauce (I chose ketchup but it would be the tasty Trader Joe’s Sriracha BBQ sauce) and enjoy!

See :) Wasn’t that much easier than involving panko crumbs, quinoa flour, and about 6 other steps? Your tummy will thank me!