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Buttermilk Cornbread Crusted Chicken Tenders

April 2, 2012 · by Ari ·

Friends, here is the deal–I have eaten my fair share of fried chicken in my day. I used to be on a diet of fast food, chicken nuggets and french fries. With tons of ranch. It was delicious. So yeah, I’ve had enough fried foods to last a life time, so unless it’s a sweet potato fry, I really try my best to steer clear these days. At least I lived it up in my teenage years, right?

Well one thing I love about fried chicken is that it’s super easy to recreate in a healthy way. I feel you can make almost any food healthy, but some are definitely more challenging, and not the same as the original when it comes down to it. Has anyone mastered creme brulee? If so, we should become BFFs because I’d like to eat healthy creme brulee for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the rest of my life. With calorie free ice cream for dessert. Let’s get to work on this people! Until then, I will get excited about other foods that usually cause heart attacks, but don’t when I make them. Like Buttermilk Cornbread Crusted Chicken Tenders.

Holy crispy chicken goodness! And you know what’s a million times better for you, and even better tasting than globs of ranch dressing? This maple mustard dipping sauce. I’ve started using this stuff on eeeevvvveerryything…salad, chicken, my spoon…

All served up with some delicious crispy kale chips. This dinner was a total hit! Last night was actually the second time I made it. I did a lot of really good cooking while Steve was away (guess I was trying to keep myself busy?) so now I’m trying to recreate it, so I can make him spend many laborious hours photographing it he can taste it too.

Buttermilk Cornbread Crusted Chicken Tenders

yield 10 servings

  • 1 1/2 cups cornbread mix (use gluten-free is applicable)
  • 2 egg whites
  • 1/3 cup reduced fat buttermilk
  • 3 lbs chicken breast
  • garlic pepper to taste

Yes. That’s seriously all you need. I love recipes like that!

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375. Place a cooling rack inside a large baking sheet, then cover with aluminum foil (optional), and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Measure cornbread mix into a large bowl for coating.
  2. In a medium bowl, beat egg whites and buttermilk together. Add garlic pepper.
  3. Slice chicken into strips.
  4. Dip chicken into egg white/buttermilk mixture, then coat with cornbread mix and lay onto prepared baking sheet. Repeat with all chicken tenders.
  5. Bake for 15 minutes, flip and bake for an addition 15. Then broil for an additional 2 minutes to get a little extra crispiness.
  6. Let stand for 2 minutes then serve with Maple Mustard Sauce.

Maple Mustard Sauce

yield approx 10 servings

  • 1 1/2 cups nonfat plain Greek yogurt
  • 1 tbs spicy brown mustard
  • 1/2 tbs yellow mustard
  • 3 tbs sugar free maple syrup
  • garlic pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Whisk all ingredients together, then serve as a dipping sauce or dressing!

Filed Under: Entree, Gluten-free · Tagged: buttermilk, chicken, cornbread, greek yogurt, maple, mustard, recipe

Family Dinner

November 20, 2011 · by Ari ·

This week my aunt is in town from Kansas City! She usually is only able to make it out here about once a year, and unfortunately she has to leave on Thanksgiving morning so last night I invited the family over for dinner at my place. I would almost always rather cook and be in my own home than go out, but sometimes I have a hard time figuring out what to make for people with such a variety of tastes. My dad is vegetarian and Steve is a meat-a-tarian, and my grandma is, well, old. I really love spicy foods, but sometimes I worry that it will be too spicy for someone older. Not sure if that even makes a difference?

Anyway,  a few weeks ago, Lauren posted a recipe for Pumpkin Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili. I was immediately intrigued and tried it pretty soon after. Let me first say that Healthy Food For Living is probably my favorite recipe blog. I have absolutely loved every recipe I have ever tried and her substitutions have introduced me to several things that I now do on a regular basis. If you’ve never read her blog, check it out. However, when I made this chili the first time it was a little bit of a kitchen flop. You see, I had also recently seen a recipe for chili that you top with unbaked cornbread and then throw in the oven so the cornbread bakes on top. Well, the chili takes at least an hour to set and then the cornbread takes like 40 minutes so by the time it went in the oven it was 8pm and I was hungry enough to start chewing on my left arm. Well I decided it was done before it was and the cornbread to chili ratio was not working. I mean, I LOVE carbs but there was so much bread to so little chili and the bread was not really cooked and although I knew the chili recipe was good because everything tasted good, it was definitely NOT something I would share on here haha.

Last night, I used my brain a little and made cornbread muffins instead 😉 I followed Lauren’s recipe almost exactly with the exception of adding adding some canned green chilis (I’d already opened the can for the cornbread, so I figured might as well), adding a can of corn, and using half regular black beans and half cuban style. I also doubled the recipe because I was cooking for 6.

The chili was delicious. *Almost* perfect. The one thing I would change next time is I would either boil/bake/microwave the sweet potato chunks for a few minutes first to cook them through slightly, or I would put the whole thing in a crockpot and let it cook on low probably all day long. Some of the sweet potatoes were cooked enough, but some of them were not quite as soft as I would have liked, but no one seemed too bothered by it 🙂

For the corn muffins, I took a box of Trader Joe’s cornbread mix, 3/4 cup reduced fat buttermilk, 1 egg, 1/2 can medium heat green chilis and 1/2 cup pumpkin. Mixed everything together, transferred to muffin tins and baked according to directions on the box, although muffins definitely cook up faster, so you have to keep an eye on them.

I left Steve in charge of filling the tins, so we ended up with 1o huge muffins instead of 12 haha. He of course took all the credit for their deliciousness because I let him take over at the end.

The nice thing about this meal is that even though the chili takes a while to cook, once you put everything together, it just does the rest of the work on it’s own which gave me time to visit with the fam.

My aunt Rocky

I’m glad this is documented because I think this is the most conservative outfit my dad has ever worn.

G-ma. I think Steve did a pretty fab job on this picture! Doesn't she look good for 88?!

Steve got artsy with the camera. For a change 😉

Annnnnndddd Janie brought over our Chanukah/Christmas present super early!! She reads the blog so she knew exactly what I wanted!

"Present!!! I love presents!!!"

IT'S THE FLAMINGO!!!!!!!!!!

EEEEEE!!!! The wait is over!!!!

Do you remember how long I’ve been wanting this flamingo light?!?! Since last year!!! Obviously, I was ecstatic! I’ve said it a million times, but I am the easiest person to shop for. It doesn’t take a lot to make me happy, and I love presents so much that pretty much anything with a little bit of thought, I go over the moon for. Janie is actually a really fantastic gift giver. Last year, she got us holiday martini glasses that I can’t wait to break out this year–perhaps an eggnog martini is in my future 🙂 She also got us this

Menorah ornament!!!

Steve and I almost bought that ornament and actually when I was at Target yesterday with Bethany I almost bought the flamingo. So glad we didn’t buy either! Thank you Janie for the amazing kick off to the holiday season!

After dinner we had some cranberry bars for dessert, and took some family pics.

I am not a fan of this picture and I do not find it flattering, but it is necessary for the funniness that is about to come, so I'm taking one for the team, or the greater humor, or something.

After I looked at this photo, I started complaining about my double chin. All the sudden in pictures, it appears without fail. I have to be super careful about my angles because I’m vain and I do in fact care about it. As I started complaining, my dad suggested I try his neck exercises.

Thanks for the tip dad. Clearly, I have something to learn about my strength training from you 😉

“You see how I tighten in the most tensed position?” Oh yes, there is no arguing about tightened and tense position hahahaha. My dad is ridiculous and now you can see where I get my silliness from. My mom is actually pretty silly too. I didn’t stand a chance!

We spent the remainder of the evening loving on the puppies.

Clementine is learning to raise the roof.

And I'm trying to learn from her how to be cute. She is the master.

Can you see the photographer dog favoritism? Poor Winnie always seems left out of all of the pictures 🙁 If I was in control of the camera, there would be shot after shot of Winston in all his glory! 🙂

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized · Tagged: chili, clementine, cornbread, family, pumpkin, sweet potato, winston

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