Taco Crusted Chicken Fingers

Ever since the previews aired, I've been dying to see The Great Gatsby.  KK and I finally found a showtime that fit our schedule last night.  Given my love for the original novel, I set my expectations a little too high and was mildly disappointed.  IMDB reviewers give the film a 7.5 right now, but my personal rating is closer to a 6/6.5 (out of 10).  Here are my thoughts:

     Pro: I appreciated that the film stayed relatively close to the book's original plot line
     Con: I feel as though the 1974 version of the film with Robert Redford was better

     Pro: Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby
     Con:  Toby McGuire as Nick Carraway - he really got on my nerves

     Pro: Fantastic costume design - makes me want to be a flapper for Halloween
     Con: Overall cinematography made everything seem over-embellished and garish

     Pro: Spectacular soundtrack, especially A Little Party Never Killed Nobody, Bang Bang, Young And Beautiful, and Crazy In Love

Anyone else see it? What were your thoughts?

Rewinding back to Tuesday: I served these chicken tenders with a salad and cooked up the Mexican Rice recipe I received in my May FPP package.  The recipe was inspired by Allrecipes.com, upgraded to include 1 teaspoon onion powder (instead of onion) and a can of Rotel (instead of a regular tomato).  I think the ground cumin really put this rice over the top.  I also used instant rice instead of long grain rice to speed things up.  The side dish was fantastic and will definitely be repeated.  Thanks again, Haley!

The extra homemade taco seasoning I made for last weekend's Taco Pasta came in handy for the chicken fingers.  I suggest using the chip-cheese mixture a bit sparingly when you start coating your chicken tenders.  I had a mini fail - I coated my first few tenders in a fairly thick layer of chips, and ran out of mixture with about 4 tenders to go! I had to scrape off some of the chips from some of the tenders to get everything coated.  If chicken appears to be cooked through but the tortilla chip crust is not crispy, place baking pan under broiler for an additional 2-3 minutes.  As much as I dislike sour cream, combining it with salsa was a great pairing.  KK all but licked the bowl clean!

Taco Crusted Chicken Fingers
Adapted from Plain Chicken
Time: 35 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
Cooking spray
1 cup finely crushed tortilla chips
½ cup shredded Mexican cheese
2 Tbsp taco seasoning
2 eggs
1 Tbsp milk
¼ cup flour
1 ½ lb. chicken tenders
2 Tbsp sour cream
½ cup salsa

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400.  Cover a baking pan with tin foil and spray with cooking spray.

2. In a food processor, combine crushed tortilla chips, cheese, and taco seasoning.  Pulse into fine crumbs, then transfer to a shallow bowl.

3. In a shallow dish, whisk together eggs and milk.

4. Pour flour into another bowl, and coat chicken tenders with the flour.  Dip chicken tenders into egg mixture, and then coat in tortilla chip crumbs.  Place chicken tenders on baking pan.

5. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

6. While chicken bakes, combine salsa and sour cream in a small bowl.  Dollop over baked chicken tenders.