I decided to make a new peanut chicken recipe recently since I was tired of the same old chicken fingers. I was already crusting the chicken in crushed peanuts, rather than the typical breadcrumbs, so I decided to take the extra step of making the recipe gluten free, by using corn flour as a base dredge instead of the wheat flour I generally use. Taking some inspiration from African peanut soup, I spiced my chicken fingers up a bit, with some cayenne in the flour, but milder seasoning would be great too.
I served some of the Peanut Chicken Fingers over seasoned rice, and some with salad. Sriracha sauce and Ponzu sauce both went well with the chicken fingers and rice. When served with a salad, I simply used a creamy dressing on the salad, and left the peanut chicken plain. They would be great with a sweet dip too though.
While baking the oils in the peanuts release a bit, so there is no need to use oil when cooking these.
Yes, my 3 ½ year old ate these heartily.
Ingredients
- 2 large chicken breasted sliced into fingers - use tenders if you prefer
- 1 ½ cups lightly salted peanuts
- ½ cup corn flour* not meal, this is finely ground
- 1 egg
- ⅓ cup milk
- seasonings of choice I used ⅛ teaspoon cayenne, ⅛ teaspoon white pepper, ⅛ teaspoon garlic powder & ¼ teaspoon Mrs. Dash Table blend
- Kosher Salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°
- Place peanuts in a large plastic bag. Pound them about 20 times with the bottom of a heavy skillet. If this is too noisy for you, just crush them up in a food processor, but be careful not to over grind them.
- In one dish season the flour and mix until blended.
- In another dish, beat the egg into the milk, lightly season.
- If peanuts are in a large plastic bag leave them there, if not put them in a 3rd dish/bowl.
- Dredge each chicken fingers in the flour mixture, then drop into the egg wash, then drop into peanuts to coat.
- Press lightly on chicken to make sure peanuts adhere well.
- Line up the chicken fingers on a baking sheet.
- Bake for approx. 7-8 minutes, flip and bake another 6-7 minutes.
- Remove and serve.
Notes
Kate says
Sounds delicious!!! Thanks!! I'll try that for lunch 🙂
Also, what do you think, is a walnut crust might work as well? my son doesn't like peanuts....
Thanks!!
Shop with Me Mama (Kim) says
That looks so easy to make and yummy!
Crystal @ Simply Being Mommy says
That looks yummy girl! Thanks for sharing.
Mandy says
Those look great! And gluten free too! I've been so tempted to try a gluten-free diet just to see if it would make a difference in how I feel. Great to know you can find yummy things like this to eat while on it!
Penelope says
Another great recipe!
Bethany Larrabee says
They look so tasty!
Tired Mom Tésa says
Yum! I love finding different ways to bread or crust chicken. I haven't tried peanuts yet and am nowintrigued!
LeeAnn says
Those sound delicious! Thank you for sharing! I'm definitely going to try these...when I actually have some time to cook! 😀
Ava says
This recipe certainly looked yummy and delicious. It is very clever idea to substitute corn flour for wheat flour to make the recipe gluten-free. I wish I could try this recipe in the near future.
1stopmom says
I have seen different ways to make chicken fingers but not with peanuts. This looks really good 🙂
Curt says
Now there's a great idea! I could eat that for lunch any day!
Laura @ GotChocolate says
OMG! That sounds and LOOKS soooo delicious!!! I LOVE peanuts too! Great job, Robin!!!
Mel says
I made this recipe and OMG, can we say delish! I made a peanut butter glaze to go on top out of creamy peanut butter, soy sauce, ginger, honey, garlic, white wine vinegar, cayenne pepper and brown sugar...it was absolutely perfect. The peanuts have just the right amount of oil in them and it gives the chicken a bit of a crispiness to it...Oh I can go on forever about this recipe! Absolutely loved it! Thanks for this, my 4 yr old son is a picky eater but LOVES anything to do with peanut butter so he gobbled these up!
Robin says
I'm so glad you liked them. I need to make a batch again soon for my daughter.