I love these baked chicken strips because they always have lots of flavor, they’re always juicy, and they are so easy! With just 3 net carbs per serving they are perfect for dipping in cream gravy! This is my favorite chicken recipe for my low carb chicken and waffles (coming soon, I promise). The secret to getting the chicken breast this tender and juicy is in the marinade – more about that later!
For this recipe you’ll need: chicken breast, dill pickle juice, almond flour, chili powder, salt, garlic powder, chipotle chile powder, and eggs.
If you are in a hurry, feel free to Jump to the Recipe
Fried chicken is pretty much a staple in the South. You wouldn’t know it unless you lived here awhile but there’s probably as many ways to fry chicken as there are people frying it. There’s those who like to marinate it in buttermilk and those who don’t marinate at all. There’s batter fried, bread crumb coated, corn flake coated, and cornmeal coated. There’s boneless fried chicken and bone-in fried chicken. It doesn’t matter – it’s all good.
But it’s not all low carb.
I’ve taken a couple of my favorite recipes and smashed ’em together to make these oven fried chicken strips. They are not super crispy but they are super yummy, especially with gravy or low carb Dr Pepper BBQ sauce to dip them in. They freeze really well so I like to make them up in a batch, lay them out on a cookie sheet and flash freeze them. Then it’s just a matter of warming them up when I want a little lunch.
So. Let’s talk marinade, shall we?
Letting the chicken marinate in dill pickle juice makes it tender and gives it a great flavor. You don’t want to leave it more than a couple of hours or the acids in the pickle juice will turn the meat to mush. If you are pinched for time you can just let it marinate 15 minutes but the full 2 hours is best.
Quick meals like this are what are keeping me going this summer. How has it been for y’all? My summer has been insane! We had one graduate high school and 2 get their associates degrees, one kiddo ended up in summer school, then there was youth camp, and then a couple of awards ceremonies for our high school graduate because not only was he valedictorian he also go a presidential award for community service… Then our 17 year old headed to Panama on a missions trip – which is where he is this week. Meanwhile the high school graduate went down to A&M to get classes squared away and when he gets back he’ll have about a week before he heads down there for real.
Oh y’all. My heart.
I’m so proud of them and you’d think that with 8 kids, and 6 of them now in college or in the military or adulting, that it wouldn’t be so hard when they left. You’d think I’d be used to it.
Well, I am and I’m not. I am so happy that he’s going off to find his own way in the world but I am going to miss him like crazy. My goal at the moment is to NOT deal with my emotions by throwing red peanut M&Ms at them. If I can get through the next few weeks with ketosis intact it will be nothing short of a miracle.
One I fully intend to accomplish.
So- red peanut M&Ms? Yeah, only the red ones. I’m kind of an addict but I have no trouble at all staying away from all of the other colors. The red ones just hop into my mouth without hesitation. Laugh all you want, it’s no secret that I’m a little peculiar!
I’m making low carb comfort food and lots of it to get through. I love my chicken and waffles (I’ll be sharing that recipe in a couple of days) and goulash and coca cola cake… plus I have a few other favorites that will no doubt show up on the blog in the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, y’all make a batch of these baked chicken strips and have them all ready for chicken-n-waffles. You won’t be sorry!
Table of Contents
Baked Chicken Strips
Ingredients
- 1 boneless chicken breast about 12 ounces
- 1 cup dill pickle juice
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon chipotle chile powder
- 2 eggs
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375F.
- Cut the chicken into strips.
- Soak in the dill pickle juice for at least 2 hours.
- Drain and pat dry.
- Beat the eggs until frothy.
- Mix the almond flour, chili powder, chipotle chile powder, garlic powder, and salt.
- Roll the chicken strips in the almond flour mixture.
- Dip in the egg.
- Roll in the almond flour mixture again.
- Place on a greased baking sheet.
- Bake for 10 minutes.
- Flip over and bake 5 minutes more or until an insta-read thermometer registers 165F when stuck into the middle of a chicken strip.
- Serve.
Nutrition
If you liked this baked chicken strips recipe you may also like…
Click on the image to see the recipe. From left to right (all low carb): Chicken Shawarma, Chicken Pot Pie, Chicken Alfredo.
It is a good idea to use vinegar-based marinades like dill pickle juice because that decreases the amount of AGE s our body produces from our food. These are Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) and are proteins or lipids that become glycated (sugar-coated) as a result of exposure to sugars. They can be a factor in aging and in the development or worsening of many degenerative diseases, such as diabetes, atherosclerosis, chronic kidney disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. Therefore, marinated meats and cooking them at no higher a temperature than 350 deg F significantly reduce these items in our diet. Both high temperatures above 350 deg F and sugary foods all contribute to these aging and diseases that damage our body parts. Kudos. I marinate all my meats for this very reason. Alzheimer’s has now been directly associated with high sugar content that destroys the MIF cells in our brains and we have brains that don’t function well because of it. Stop glycation and we can stop AZ.