Chic Fil A - Healthy and at Home!

I was reading an article about the horrible ingredients in Chic Fil A's fast food. Look I know everyone loves Chic-Fil-A chicken - it just tastes different than that other fast food, but, it's still fast food, and thus full of crappy preservatives and ingredients that are just plain bad for you. The Food Babe posted her Chic-Fil-A investigation and a recipe for making chic-fil-a flavored chicken at home and in a healthier way, so naturally we had to try it.


Here's how it went down:

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts equaling about 1 pound
1 large egg
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 cup pickle juice
1 1/2 tsp paprika
3/4 cup spelt flour
1/4 cup stone ground whole wheat flour
1 tbsp powdered sugar
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp baking soda

Optional: whole wheat hamburger buns & pickle slices

Directions
Marinating:

About 4 hours before or the day before – Cut chicken breasts in half making 4 similar size pieces and pound the chicken to ½ inch thick.



Sprinkle both sides of the chicken with salt, pepper and 1/2 tsp paprika and place in a bag with 1 cup pickle juice. Let marinate for at least 4 hours to one day prior to baking.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Make dredging station:
In one bowl, combine and stir flours, sugar, baking soda, 1 tsp paprika, dry mustard.



In another bowl, whisk egg and almond milk together.



Remove chicken from marinade and dredge one piece of chicken at a time in egg bath, ensuring each side is wet and dredge in flour mixture coating each side. (Make sure you don't make the flour coating too thick - I made this mistake the first time and it's better a little bit on the thinner side)



Spray wire rack with oil or butter to prevent sticking and place each flour coated chicken piece on the wire rack with pan on bottom. Spray each piece liberally with olive oil covering both sides.



Place tray of chicken in oven and after 12 minutes, turn each piece of chicken over. Let bake for anotehr 12-15 minutes until golden brown and crispy. Take out of the oven and let rest at least 5 minutes.



We added some corn and sugar snap peas as some good old southern sides. Who needs waffle fries?!



Guess what?! It really did taste like chic-fil-a, and I felt good about eating it and not like I need an extra work out in the morning. Point for us.