You’ve heard of coconut prawns or shrimp. Meet its cousin, coconut chicken. Last weekend we celebrated my daughter’s 8th Birthday with a house filled with girls, Hannah Montana, and food fit for a princess. When deciding on a menu my daughter requested her favorite dish, coconut chicken tenders. Who could blame her? Each tender is dipped in sweetened egg batter, coated with a panko coconut mixture and pan-fried to perfection.
Although the kids prefer them without a dipping sauce, my husband and I love dipping them in a marmalade honey sauce. This kid and adult friendly finger food will be a hit with or without sauce. You are going to love these! Enjoy!
Recipe: Coconut Chicken Tenders with Honey Marmalade dipping sauce
Ingredients:
2 lbs of chicken tenders
1 1/2 cups of panko bread crumbs (can be found in the Asian aisle of grocery stores)
1 cup of shredded sweetened coconut
1 egg
1/2 can of condensed milk
1/2 cup of orange juice
salt and pepper to taste
Peanut Oil for frying
Directions:
On a cookie sheet, season chicken with salt and pepper on both sides. Set aside. In a medium bowl, mix orange juice, condensed milk, and a beaten egg until your “wet” mixture is well incorporated. In another bowl, mix coconut and panko crumbs.
Heat peanut oil in a medium pan or skillet on medium-high heat. Fill pan to about 1/2″ of oil. Dip and fully coat each tender in the egg mixture first and then the panko/coconut mix.
Set each coated chicken on a cookie cooling rack.
Fry each tender for 6-8 minutes until golden brown. Serve with Honey Marmalade dipping sauce. Enjoy!
Honey Marmalade Dipping Sauce Recipe:
1/2 cup of honey
1/2 of marmalade
Directions: In a small bowl, add honey and marmalade. Heat in the microwave for 1 minute. Stir everything until well mixed and serve with coconut chicken tenders.
Print This Post
{ 1 trackback }
{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
How delicious!!! I have had coconut shrimp but never thought of doing the breading on chicken. That sauce looks super tasty too:)
Alice,
These look better than tasty. Thanks for sharing!
~Jim
I’m not entirely convinced the Nuni would eat it, but that’s OK because she’d have to pry it out of my hands.
I never thought of using coconut with chicken tenders. This looks great. I love the honey marmalade dipping sauce you made for it to. Looks and sounds delicious.
I love coconut chicken, but have never made it at home. This sounds wonderful!
These look so good! I KNOW I will be making these. My husband’s favorite dish on our honeymoon in Jamaica was the coconut breaded chicken. I’ve never been able to duplicate it… but this sounds close! He will be sooo happy!
They look lovely and yummy!
I cannot wait to try these as I have all the ingredients already in the kitchen! Looks great
Nom nom nom! This is definitely going on my “try-out” list!! Looks absolutely delish!
I have always wanted to make coconut chicken and never have….this looks and sounds fantastic – I NEED to make it now
That coconut crusted chicken whit dipping sauce looks really good!
I just made these for dinner, and they were so delicious! I have found a new blog to follow
hey those are gorgeous photos! i love your counter tops
Hi Alice, it’s Joy. I’m looking for some inspiration for dinner tonight. Think I found it. Miss your other blog. Glad your doing this one.
♥
Joy
Thank you everyone for your kind words.
QUYNH: I am really glad you liked them!
I made them Friday night and loved them. Soooo Good!
These were absolutely delicious! I substituted the panko bread crumbs since I couldn’t find them at my grocery store for crushed rice krispy cereal. It was absolutely wonderful and everyone loved it! Thank you for the fabulous recipe!
Danielle, what a fantastic substitute! You’re brilliant. I bet crushed Corn Flakes would work too!
This recipe was perfect! My family ate it up and begged for more
I hope you don’t mind, I’m writing a blog post about how much my husband in particular loved it, and I’m including the recipe and a link to you. I should have it up by Monday at the latest, so let me know if you’d rather I didn’t post it for some reason. I’m not a food blogger, so I don’t know if it’s considered OK for me to post someone else’s recipe? I hope so, though, because I think my readers would really like it! Have a nice weekend 
Do you think you’d be able to cook these in the oven, as oppose to frying them?
Indy
Indy: Yes you could bake them.. however I’ve found they do not crisp up as much. You will also want to make sure to mix a little bit of butter or oil with the panko crumbs before coating the chicken in order for them to crisp up a little. Baking times will be the same as you would when you normally bake chicken. Hope that helps!
Alice
I love this recipe!!! Am going to try it tomorrow. My kids are tired of chicken steaks and nuggets…thanks for a lovely recipe!!
Alice, such a PLEASANT surprise to find your blog. I was in desperate need of going grocery shopping, but last night decided to create something with the ingredients I had left. I had everything your recipe asked for and actually was looking for a coconut chicken recipe when I stumbled across yours! We made this along with the rice and Korean style spinach. The chicken was FABULOUS! My husband thoroughly enjoyed it, and I’m excited to continue using your recipes. As a Korean American, I’m excited to see that you have Kalbi and Bulgogi recipes as well.
Oh man this looks good! I LOVE coconut prawns, but my husband is not a fan… this will be a great day for me to get a fried meat coconut fix, and for him to not have to eat prawns.
If you bake them, you can always turn on the broiler at the end for a couple of minute to give them the extra crunch! I’m making these tonight for my 5 year old son and my husband, thank you!
Hi Alice!
I’m just curious about something in this recipe. Is it SWEETENED condensed milk, as in Eagle Brand?? the recipe didn’t say sweetened, and I’ve never seen any other type of condensed milk, only evaporated milk, so I wanted to make sure.
thanks!! love your blog and all the beautiful photos!