Parmesan Herb Baked Chicken Fingers

 OH BOY Chicken Fingers...

But Not just any Chicken Fingers, these are baked with a crispy coating of Nutty Cheesy Parmesan with hints of savory herbs.  Add a simple honey dipping sauce and you have a fast and easy appetizer (10 minutes hands on work) that pleases everyone.  The baked fingers are a must for diet and health conscious eaters.

There are a couple of hints in the recipe.

Most important is to dry the chicken.  Simple, just dry with a paper towel.  This helps to get a crispy finger.  the math is simple.  If you start with a water wet coating on the chicken you will get a gummy wet flour coating that will just never crisp up.

Next is also important for easy fast clean up... line the baking pan with aluminum foil.  But also use a non stick spray on the foil.  You are coating the chicken with an egg.  That will stick to the foil, leaving more coating on the dish than the chicken.  Non stick spray equals a well coated baked eggy crispy crunchy coating.

And finally, flip the chicken half way through baking.  Both sides deserve that crunch.

Savory crispy crunchy and BAKED... What a great idea!

ENJOY!

 OK... Here's what I did...

Parmesan Herb Baked
Chicken Fingers

Ingredients

• 4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts, thin about 1 pound total, cut into finger size pieces
• 1-1/2 Cups Panko style Bread Crumbs
• 1/2 Cup Parmesan
• 2 TBS Herbs (I used an Herbes de Provance mix... use whatever dry herbs you have on hand, Oregano, Parsley, Basil, Thyme, Sage, etc.)
• 1 TBS Garlic Powder
• Large pinch Salt
• Large pinch Pepper
• 1/2 Cup Flour
• 2 Eggs, Beaten
• 1/2 Cup Honey for dipping or drizzle

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spread the Panko crumbs on a rimmed cookie sheet, bake for 5 minutes until the crumbs just begin to brown.
3. Mix the Panko crumbs with the Parmesan, Herbs, garlic, Salt and Pepper on that same cookie sheet.
4. VERY IMPORTANT - Dry each of the chicken pieces with a paper towel to insure a crispy coating.
5. Dump the flour into a large ziplock plastic bag.  Add the dried chicken fingers to the bag, seal and shack until well coated.
6. Set up a three step dredging system, the floured chicken gets dipped in the egg.  Then dredged onto the Panko spiced mix.  Then arranged on a cookie sheet for baking (I always line the sheet with aluminum foil for easy clean up.  Spray the foil with a non stick spray.)
7. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes (flip them at 10 minutes) until the internal temperature reaches 160 degree and the crumb coating has begun to brown and crisp (Golden Brown and Delicious).
8. Serve with a simple Honey dip and ENJOY!