Taco Chicken Fingers or Salad: Two Ways to Serve

Taco Chicken Fingers or Salad: Two Ways to Serve

Taco Chicken Fingers: The Appetizer

  OR....

Taco Chicken Salad: The Main Course

Hi everybody :)

I'm finally coming down from my sugar-high from this post. Today I wanted to keep it light and simple. So I decided to do a recipe that you can serve up twice, in two different ways. One as a appetizer served with salsa, sour cream, guacamole, and chips; that would be perfect for entertaining. The other as a main course salad with a salsa dressing.

These two recipes begin with chicken breast. The chicken breasts are cut into tenders, coated with a tortilla crust, baked in the oven and used as an appetizer or in a salad. 

This recipe comes from my cookbook collection and here's is how it's done;


Taco Chicken Fingers From CREATIVE COOK'S KITCHEN COOKBOOK

For Chicken Fingers
4  boneless, skinless chicken breasts halves (about 1 1/4 - l 1/2 pounds) (I used three chicken breasts)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons milk (not shown in picture)
1 bag (9 ounces) tortilla chips
1 tablespoon taco seasoning
















For to Serve:
salsa
sour cream
guacamole
tortilla chips

Cooking The Chicken:

Preheat oven to 425°F. Lightly grease a baking sheet. Cut each chicken breast half crosswise into 1/2-inch strips.

Chicken Tenders

In a large shallow bowl, whisk mayonnaise and milk until blended and smooth.

Milk & Mayonnaise

Place tortilla chips in a resealable plastic bag. Using a rolling pin, crush chips into fine crumbs.

Crushed Chips

In another large shallow bowl, toss 1 1/4 cups crushed tortilla chips with taco seasoning; mix well. Toss chicken strips first in mayonnaise mixture, then in crushed tortilla chips. 

Chicken with Coating - Uncooked

Tips: To maintain the tortilla crumb coating, refrigerate the coated chicken strips for 30 minutes before cooking.

Uncooked Chicken on Sheet

Place on prepared baking sheet (do not overlap).
Bake until just browned and chicken is cooked through, 10-12 minutes. Serve with salsa, sour cream and guacamole.

Or...
Taco Chicken Salad From CREATIVE COOK'S KITCHEN COOKBOOK

For Individual Salads:
Taco Chicken Fingers (recipe above)
Salsa (I used 2 parts salsa)
Mayonnaise (I used 1 part mayonnaise)
Lettuce or Salad Mix (I used salad mix)
Tomatoes
Avocado
Cucumber
Mexican Blend or Cheddar Cheese (not shown in picture)
Tortilla Chips, broken into pieces (not shown in picture)

To Make the Dressing:
Mix salsa and mayonnaise in a small bowl until combine, set aside.

2 parts Salsa & 1 part Mayonnaise

  

The Dressing

Fill lettuce cups with taco Chicken Fingers, then top with diced tomatoes, avocado, cucumber, cheese, chips or whatever you like.

 
What I Did and/or Think:
I followed the recipe and tip for the fingers.

The taste was Excellent. The chips adhere very well and stay on fairly well after cooking so I was please. I LOVE Mexican-Styled dishes so this is definitely a REPEAT! or Esto es definitivamente un REPEAT ! ( in Spanish)  :)

For the salad, I combine the things I thought would make a great salad. Using the idea for the dressing, I   mixed it 2 parts salsa, 1 part mayonnaise and because I wanted a little kick to it, I use Pace Medium Salsa.

This was worthy of a REPEAT also.

ENJOY! Come again.....

Linked to:
Make Ahead Meals for Busy Moms: Melt-in-Your-Mouth Monday Recipe Blog Hop # 83
Jaime @ Mom's Test Kitchen
Flour Me With Love: Mix it up Monday!
Just Something I Whipped Up at Project Inspire (The Girl Creative)
Katherine Martinelli: Taco Blog Hop