Orangey Oat and Herb Crusted Chicken Tenders

When I visited Chicago last, my Aunt Dean gave me her copy of a cookbook by Robin Miller that has ideas of what to buy, cook, and then cook again a different way. It also has a variety of quick recipes that are kid-friendly. I'm not saying that my fiance is a child, but child-friendly food is definitely the way to go.

This week, I decided to do something that millions of families across the world do regularly and rarely even think about it. I plan to make dinner at home every night and bring my lunch to the office every day. Of course, I bring my lunch all the time anyway, but I don't cook nightly.

Sunday night I went to the grocery store and bought the ingredients for 5 recipes--all from Robin Miller's book. Last night was recipe number 1. It was O.K., I have definitely had some chicken tenders that were better, and I might not even count them as chicken tenders--but they were edible and mostly eaten by both my fiance and I. And, they had a ton of flavor. Plus, it only took me about 30 minutes to put together in total!

The main problem was that the crust wasn't all over the chicken--it was just dotted in places. I had a lot of trouble spreading the orange marmelade. I think if I were to make them again I would try apricot jam but also I would heat the jam slightly and use it to dip or coat the chicken before shaking it around with the oats. Also, there were not nearly enough oats for the whole 1 and 1/4 pound of chicken--so I recommend adding more, or doing the shake up with half and then the other half later.

Orangey Oat and Herb Crusted Chicken Tenders by Robin Miller
Ingredients
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
2 T flour
1 t dried oregano
1 t dried thyme
1 t garlic powder
1/2 t onion powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 t freshly ground black pepper
1 1/4 pounds chicken tenders
1/3 c orange marmalade
Cooking Spray

Preheat oven to 400F
Coat a large baking sheet with cooking spray
In a large ziptop plastic bag, combine ingredients through pepper. Close the bag and shake until combined.
Brush the chicken pieces all over with marmalade - this was hard so I recommend heating the jam
Add chicken to the oat mixture (half at a time) seal the bag and shake to coat.
Place chicken pieces on the prepared baking sheet and spray the tops with cooking spray.
Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown and cooked through (mine were cooked through but were not golden brown)
Serve with BBQ or Honey for dipping