Recipe: "Light" Parmesan Chicken

I'm always looking for new ways to prepare chicken, because quite frankly, I'm burned out on eating it. So when I saw a recipe for Parmesan Chicken Tenders on the My Fitness Pal blog, Hello Healthy, I wanted to try it.


As you can see, it's not Chicken Parmesan with gooey cheese and tomato sauce - which is why I like it. And it was meant to be made with chicken tenderloins. But I had boneless, skinless breasts, so that's what I went with...

This is really, really good. The breading is wonderful with Parmesan cheese and garlic and onion powder to flavor it, but it's very light, so it is definitely more suited to thin tenderloins than a thicker breast - unless, of course, you pound the breast into a thinner cutlet.


Part of what makes this "light" is that you only briefly brown it in a pan, then you transfer it to the oven to finish cooking. I think that is what makes all the difference with the texture of the breading. Most oven-baked breadings I've tried have been horrible - but this one is delicious - both in texture and taste.


You can click here to see the original recipe on Hello Healthy. I didn't use buttermilk, and as I mentioned, I used chicken breasts instead of tenderloins since that's what I had on hand. This made enough "breading" for easily 4 breasts or at least 8 tenderloins, so I had a good amount left over.

"Light" Parmesan Chicken
       (printable version)

Ingredients:
1/3 c. flour
3 TBSP. cornmeal
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. skim milk
1 egg
2 chicken breasts (but it makes enough to bread 4)
1 TBSP. cooking oil
non-stick cooking spray

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees, and spray a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray.
Mix all dry ingredients together in low, flat dish.
Lightly beat egg together with milk in another bowl.
Dip chicken in egg mixture, then dredge in breading mix.
Place cooking oil in skillet over medium heat, and add chicken once it reaches the proper temperature.
Brown chicken lightly on both sides, then transfer to baking sheet.
Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes (or about 5 minutes for tenderloins), or until done. I turned mine over halfway through.


The nutritional info says that 2 tenderloins is one serving, and yields 326 calories, 12g total fat, 3g saturated fat, 4g monounsaturated fat, 128mg cholesterol, 581mg sodium, 15g carbs, 1g fiber, 2g sugar, and 35g protein. But those numbers are using the ingredients in the original recipe. And that makes the total net carbs 14g - way too much for a dish like this, and way too much for someone who is insulin-resistant like me.

So next time, I'm going to try to make it a little more "insulin-resistant-friendly", and do some swaps to make it more low carb. I'll definitely be sharing it!

In the meantime, let me know if you try it, and if you do, how you like it!

Do you have any easy chicken recipes that are low carb?