Baked Coconut Crusted Chicken Fingers

This shop/post has been compensated by Collective Bias, INC. and The Coca-Cola Company, all opinions are mine alone. #ItsAMatch #DietCoke #CollectiveBias

Is anyone else legitimately sad that the Olympics are over?? I had such a blast following the games every day, it was like a roller coaster of emotions feeling a little bit of what each athlete goes through. If I absolutely had to choose a favorite moment it would have to be seeing Shaun White in tears over his gold medal, and later him tearing up again watching fans’ reactions to his monster run. So awesome. Earlier this month I was super lucky to be able to attend the Team USA Olympics viewing party in Park City. It was a weekend event held by Team USA for a big group of their official sponsors like Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola made sure to have plenty of their beverages available throughout the weekend, so we got to try some of Diet Coke®’s yummy new flavors. They’re the ones in the tall, sleek new cans and the flavors they’re offering are: Diet Coke® Classic, Diet Coke® Feisty Cherry, Diet Coke® Ginger Lime, Diet Coke® Zesty Blood Orange, and Diet Coke® Twisted Mango. Our pantry is always stocked with the classic Diet Cokes, so it’s real fun having some new flavors to mix things up, we love them! Any other Diet Coke loyalists out there?? I love that it’s getting a facelift while maintaining the same taste. Today I’m pairing up the wild Diet Coke Twisted Mango with a new recipe of mine for coconut crusted chicken. I put together this meal for a Sunday night dinner with the rents and loved how it turned out, the Diet Coke Twisted Mango is a perfect pair for this recipe.

Check out my recipe below and find these new flavors at Smith’s. They have them in 8-packs, but if you start with the single cans then you can try all of the flavors! Have you tried these yet? Which ones are your favorites? If you take this fun quiz HERE then you can find out which new flavor is your match as well as more pairing recipes!

 

 

Coconut Crusted Chicken Fingers
Serves 5-6

• 2 cups buttermilk
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 2 lbs. chicken tenders, sliced to half thinness
• 1 cup flour
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs
• 2 cups unsweetened coconut flakes
• sweet Thai chili sauce for dipping

Directions:

In a large bowl whisk together the buttermilk, salt and pepper. Place chicken tenders in the buttermilk mixture and set aside in fridge for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350F and line two pans with aluminum foil.

To prepare the dredge, place the flour in a shallow bowl, in a separate bowl whisk together the eggs, and in a medium bowl combine the panko and coconut. Dip each piece of chicken into the flour, then the egg, then the coconut mixture, and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the center of the chicken reaches 165F. Turn your oven to low broil and place each pan on the highest rack for 2-3 minutes. Keep a close eye on them until they reach your desired brownness before removing from oven. Serve warm with sweet Thai chili sauce.