Baked Chicken Tenders with Nature's Path Organics

I have often stated to people that there are some good examples of marketing to children and a good example is Nature's Path. It began with 'Cheetah' bars a few years back. It then expanded to Koala bars, and I became obsessed with the Pumpkin Flax Plus Granola (you may have seen the pumpkin bar post). I also try to put my money into companies that have values that I share: real food, educating people about good food choices and believing in sustainability.

Wait, you came for baked chicken tender recipe right? Yes, I am getting to it. The reason I took off on a Nature's Path tangent is that I made some tenders with two of their cereals: Gorilla Munch and Flax Plus Multigrain. Aren't I silly?

So, my inspiration was this: I saw some chicken tenderloins on a ridiculous sale yesterday and wanted to switch things up a bit so I looked around and noted the cereal on the counter and thought 'what the heck'. The gorilla munch is not a super sugary kids cereal and thought, maybe with some salt, we could create the salty/sweet combo so many love. The multigrain seems great as I knew it would make a crunchy crust.

This is a quick item to make but it is rather impressive I must say...oh, and make my dipping sauce, trust me.

Baked Tenders:

1 lbs chicken cut into 'tender' strips.

~2 cups of cereal, roughly crushed (do not make too tiny or will not be crispy)

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 egg

2 tablespoons 1% milk

salt & pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Place a cooling rock onto a baking sheet. This is key to a crispy crust.

3. Mix egg and milk in one bowl and combine. Place flour on a plate and season well. Place lightly crushed cereal on a separate plate and season well. Create an assemble line form left to right as follows: flour, egg mixture, cereal, cooling rack.

4. Dip chicken strip in flour and shake excess. Dip into egg, then cover with cereal and place on rack.

5. Bake approx. 20 minutes (my strips were thick so check after 15 minutes for doneness.)

Savor's Mustard Dipping Sauce:

Mix the following together and dip away: 2 teaspoons reduced fat mayonnaise, 1 teaspoon yellow mustard, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard and 1/4 lemon juice.

FYI: The kids preferred the gorilla munch while the adults preferred the multigrain. Also, Nature's Path had sent me some of their newest products and you really should look into trying their new line from Dr. Weil and some great granolas.