Cheez-it Chicken
This is a favorite of quite a few of the children I babysit. It tastes great, is easy to make, only has four ingredients, and kid-friendly to boot! I love it when a recipe has just about everything going for it, and this one definitely does!
This is a favorite of quite a few of the children I babysit. It tastes great, is easy to make, only has four ingredients, and kid-friendly to boot! I love it when a recipe has just about everything going for it, and this one definitely does!
- Carbohydrate 99.6301500015747 g
- Cholesterol 99.6650000919514 mg
- Fat 70.6939625337002 g
- Fiber 4.03200016021728 g
- Protein 18.4770625013791 g
- Saturated Fat 33.5403875212954 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (240g)
- Sodium 1852.7212502232 mg
- Sugar 95.5981498413574 g
- Trans Fat 4.1490050022782 g
- Calories 1107 calories
Step-by-step
- Preheat the oven to 375F.
- Crush Cheez-Its by placing them in a large ziploc bag and rolling over them with a rolling pin.
- Roll the chicken tenders in the sour cream and then in the Cheez-It crumbs.
- Place them in a baking dish. Drizzle with the melted butter.
- Bake at 375F for 40 minutes.
Sour cream serves as the essential binder in this preparation, outperforming traditional egg washes by providing both moisture and a high-fat matrix that grips dense cracker crumbs tightly to poultry surfaces. Standard breading techniques rely on flour and eggs, but dairy proteins adhere more thoroughly to smooth chicken tenders when applied thickly. Crushing processed cheese crackers yields a dense, flavorful crust containing high amounts of sodium and fat, which browns rapidly in a 375F oven.
Assessing doneness without a digital thermometer requires careful attention to visual and tactile cues. Poultry reaches safety when juices run entirely clear rather than pink, and the meat offers firm resistance when pressed with the back of a spoon. Because the exterior cheese coating darkens quickly, monitoring the baking progress around the thirty-five-minute mark prevents excessive scorching of the cracker solids.
Executing this method efficiently requires careful sequencing of the coating station. Placing crackers inside a sealed plastic bag before crushing them with a heavy rolling pin contains flying fragments and creates a uniform particle size. Dredging the meat requires two distinct hands—one for wet ingredients and one for dry—to prevent thick clumps from forming on fingertips.
Plain Greek yogurt substitutes cleanly for sour cream at a one-to-one ratio when lower fat levels are desired. Storing leftovers in a sealed container within the refrigerator maintains food safety for up to three days, though the crispness of the cracker crust diminishes significantly upon reheating.
