Pineapple Glazed Chicken

I may or may not have mentioned we eat a lot of chicken, but we do (yeah, I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it). In fact I believe I bawk on occasion as we eat so much of it -- good thing we like chicken. And who doesn't like crispy crunchy juicy chicken fingers? Well besides the Littles that is. They look at me like I'm crazy, they aren't in the shape of a dinosaur nor did they come from McDonalds. Anyway, you can only dip so many chicken strips in ranch, ketchup (4ft dips EVERYTHING in ketchup), or barbecue sauce before you're like, "Meh, chicken strips. Yay." (that yay was sarcastic if you couldn't tell.) 

So to ward off the chicken strip blues I threw together a pineapple glaze because I have a sweet tooth and it was complaining about the lack of love it was getting. Sweet tooth: "You don't love me anymore." Me: "Yes I do, I feed you ice cream almost every night." Sweet tooth: "Bah, protein ice cream and that stuffs good for you. Where's the fun in that?" So I threw this glaze at it and it shut up. But... HA! Jokes on the tooth because the glaze was pretty healthy and it shook up the chicken strip world and kicked them up a notch. Win/win, am I right?

(Note: Protein ice cream is delicious and amazing and I really do eat it almost every night. My tooth was just whining because while it's delicious and amazing it's pretty healthy and the tooth misses the days of candy bars and boxes of girl scout cookies. Not that I don't eat girl scout cookies anymore (I have a box of thin mints in the freezer), it's just I don't eat an entire box in one sitting. *hangs head in shame* Yeah...it happened. Now I eat one maybe a week and savor every splendiferous bite.)



Pineapple Glazed Chicken

Ingredients
20 oz. of chicken breast tenders
1 TBS cornstarch
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp pepper
3/4 cup panko
2 TBS grated Parmesan cheese
1 TBS parsley
1 egg
1 TBS water
1 TBS lemon juice
1 TBS clover honey
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1/4 cup crushed pineapple
1 TBS soy sauce
1 TBS apple cider vinegar
1 TBS minced garlic

Directions
1.) Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit
2.) Put chicken tenders into a gallon Ziplock bag and sprinkle cornstarch, salt, garlic powder, and pepper in. Seal the bag and shake it up until the chicken is completely coated in spices.
3.) In a shallow dish, combine panko, Parmesan, and parsley. Set aside.
4.) In a shallow dish, beat together egg and water. 
5.) Dip chicken tenders in egg wash and then dredge through panko mixture, place on a wire rack on a baking sheet.
6.) Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown and cooked thoroughly.
7.) Prepare pineapple glaze: in a small sauce pan combine all the ingredients from lemon juice up to and including minced garlic. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
8.) Drizzle on chicken or put it on the side for dipping. 

Nutritional Info per Serving (makes 5 servings)
Calories: 204
Protein: 28
Fat: 3
Carbs: 16
Sugar: 9