Chicken fingers are a kid (and adult) favorite, at least at our house. As with all of our favorite foods, I’ve found healthier alternatives to the traditional versions as we’ve adopted a healthier diet.
This particular recipe uses almond flour to create a grain-free, gluten-free chicken tender that tastes even better than “regular” versions (at least in my opinion). If you cannot have nuts, you can use any flour combination you’d like.
My kids love to dip these in homemade honey mustard sauce. It is a simple addition loaded with brain healthy good fats.
These chicken fingers are great on their own, but can also be used for topping a salad with some strawberries, pecans, and goat cheese, using the honey mustard for the dressing (my favorite; here’s the recipe).
If your family likes chicken fingers, give this healthier recipe a try!
Easy Chicken Fingers Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 medium chicken breasts
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp water
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- 2 cups tallow (or coconut oil, for frying)
- honey mustard sauce (for serving, optional)
Instructions
- Cut the chicken into strips or nugget size.
- In a medium bowl, beat eggs with 1 teaspoon of water.
- Add the chicken strips and toss well.
- In another bowl, mix together the almond flour, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
- Heat the tallow or coconut oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.
- Once the oil is hot, remove the chicken from the egg mixture and then dredge in almond flour mixture.
- Place the chicken in the heated pan.
- Cook 3-4 minutes per side or until golden brown and cooked through.
- Remove from pan and keep in the oven to keep warm while additional batches are cooking.
- Once all are cooked through, sprinkle with additional salt and pepper and serve with honey mustard sauce.
Notes
Nutrition
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Is there a substitution for almond flour? My son also has nut allergies, almond being one of them. The recipe looks delicious! Thanks for your hard work:-) I’m going to try your beef cabbage stir fry soon. It looks amazing;)
Coconut flour is good if he can have that. The texture will be different but it will work
coconut is a tree nut….
My son has peanut and tree nut allergy and eats coconut fine. In reality, coconut is not a tree nut!!!!! Investigate!!! I was thrilled for my son to be able to have coconut!
*The American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (ACAAI) states: “Coconut is not a botanical nut; it is classified as a fruit, even though the Food and Drug Administration recognizes coconut as a tree nut.
Unfortunately my favorite food is fettuccine alfredo: grains and butter and cheese and milk. Not exactly the healthiest meal…
try baking powder first then redid for flour, it’s the way it’s done in chinese cooking
redip
I’m sorry I ment corn starch not baking powder
My fiance and I made fried chicken legs using coconut flour! We did it the same way and it was so good!
Recommendations for substitution on almond flour?
Is there any substitute for almond flour? My daughter has a tree nut allergy.
I know this is an older post but I am wondering if there is an alternative also. I do not have either of these allergies or sensitivities but it seems you have to choose between nut-free and grain free. Is there anything that isn’t one or the other?
How do you keep the almond flour on the chicken? It comes off in chunks and then burns.
Did you dip in egg first?
I have this question too. Every time I try to “fry” with almond flour, I can’t get it to stick to the meat, and I end up with flour balls and naked chicken. lol
Made these tonight. They were so good! I also made the honey mustard dressing without the salt and pepper and loved it. Re: oil – I just poured enough to fill the pan up to about 1/4″ and fried the chicken that way. It did result in some of the later pieces having the burnt remains of the prior pieces on them but the flavor of the “breading” was strong enough to overtake the burnt taste. 🙂
Could you bake the chicken instead?
Yep
Thanks. I was wondering the same thing
How long would you bake it? 20-25 mins?
@Natalie I think the 2 cups are so the oil comes up high enough to fry the chicken. I’m sure if you use a narrower pan you could get away with using less.
2 Cups??? That seems like a lot of very expensive oil. I’m sure it can be done with much less. Otherwise, sounds delish! I make a great honey mustard dressing for my family w/ organic olive oil, mustard, honey, red wine vinegar and s&p. I just shake it up in a container and it turns out great!
You definitely wouldn’t need that much, but that is enough to almost submerge and I re-use the oil so it doesn’t go to waste…
How many times would you re-use the oil? Thanks.
3-5 depending on what i used it for…
How do you store to reuse? Would you only reuse it for frying? How long does it keep? I’ve never heard of reusing oil, but I like it because frying seems like such a waste!
Thank you! I made this tonight with the sweet potato fries and it was delicious 🙂