Explosive Coconut Chicken

I finally got around to trying a Coconut Chicken recipe from Frugal Foods from Justa’s Kitchen (I haven’t seen her here for ages but still go back to her blog for some great recipes).

First, it was delicious but there’s a couple of things you need to be aware of before cooking this up. (Please read my final tip on re-heating leftovers) Frying coconut encrusted chicken in oil creates a lot of smoke if the temp is too high!  If you are still dipping and coating chicken breasts while the first batch is frying up, and not paying attention, you will set off the smoke alarms.  This slows things down considerably while you open windows, grab towels to blow the smoke away to clear the alarms and let the dog out because she’s howling at the piercing, screaming alarms.  With that in mind, this can be a quick and easy dinner ready for the table in half an hour.

COCONUT CHICKEN BREASTS

• 1-2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup Panko bread crumbs
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup vegetable or olive oil
• 1 cup sweet chili sauce

1.  Pound chicken breasts to about 1/4″ thickness.  Whisk eggs and    coconut milk together, then soak chicken in mixture (this could be done overnight).
2.  Set up a couple plates dredging & dipping:
* Mix flour and salt on 1 plate
* Mix bread crumbs and coconut on 2nd plate
3. Take chicken that’s been soaking in egg/coconut milk and dredge in flour mixture, then into the bread crumb/coconut mix.  Have some extra coconut to smoosh into the chicken breasts if it doesn’t completely stick or coat the chicken breast.
4. Heat 1/2 the oil in pan at not quite medium-high. Once it’s hot, begin frying chicken.  If you can fit all the chicken into 1 frying then you should be all set & ready to eat in minutes.  If you need to fry a 2nd batch, clear the pan of any browned coconut bits, add remaining oil &  finish.  Can be served with sweet chili sauce for dipping or a sweet and sour sauce would also be good.

Now for reheating any leftovers…
I’m sure you’ve all received dire email warnings from your mother or friends about microwaving coffee (if not, no more than 2 minutes or it’ll explode when you take it out…most likely melting your face).  So you have to be careful when microwaving certain things.  Take this true case for instance…

I have a golfing friend.  In New England it can get chilly golfing in the fall as you know from my prior post.  There are some golfing ranges around here that advertise that they have heated tees, the reasoning being that warm balls travel further.

Since he was playing 9 holes and not just smacking balls at a range, he decided to warm up his balls before heading out.  So… he microwaved them.  When the first ball exploded the microwave door open and his wife screamed “what the hell was that?”, not wanting to appear silly, he grabbed the rest of the balls and shoved them in his pocket.  His front pants pocket to be exact.

Unfortunately, the balls were continuing to heat & expand causing his balls to explode.  At which point he remembered what he learned in elementary school about catching on fire, figured it was close enough and did the stop, drop …as his wife walked into the kitchen to see him with his exploding pants around his ankles while grabbing his other balls.  So now you can pass the word to your golfing friends – do not heat your balls in the microwave!  And this tip from me – do not heat leftover Coconut Chicken in the microwave unless you cover it with Saran Wrap and re-heat for no longer than 1 minute.  Or you will get this: