Crunchy chicken bites..

I'm a little shocked at how many people viewed my last post! What the hell do people Google to get to a post entitled 'Bigger isn't always better'?! In any case, I'm happy people read it!

I'm glad I've the before and after's out of the way so at least you know that I'm not just another self professed know it all when it comes to nutrition, I've been at rock bottom without a clue of how to change things. Mind you, I definitely don't know it all now; not even close, but I do love cooking healthy food, and training hard to get to my goals. One thing I'm 100% sure of is that regardless of how hard you train, if your nutrition isn't hitting the mark, then you're not going to get the results. 

So dinner tonight... something quick and easy, I had a really long day so didn't want to spend ages cooking. These chicken bites are really quick to make, taste great and they're worlds apart from nasty processed chicken nuggets you'll get in the supermarket. 

I'm a baker at heart, and in a really nerdy way, I love how baking is an exact science and you really have to follow a recipe to the letter, unless you're a really competent baker who understands the function of each ingredient. Cooking savoury dishes on the other hand, is more about taste preferences so you've far more freedom to adapt recipes to suit your palate. For that reason, a lot of my savoury dishes won't have exact measurements for the ingredients.. 

You'll need: 

• 1 beaten egg
• saucer of almond flour (you can use arrowroot starch if you have a nut allergy)
• mixed seeds (I used sesame, pumpkin and sunflower, but you can vary this depending on your preference)
• chicken fillets, cubed

Preheat oven to 170d. 

Start by dipping chicken pieces in egg. 

Roll in almond flour, then return to bowl of beaten egg. 

Coat generously in seeds. 

Repeat until all pieces are evenly coated in seeds. 

Place on baking tray and cook for 10-15 mins, tossing mid way through to ensure both sides are crunchy. 

I served these with a spinach salad, a little crumbled St. Tola goat's cheese, and some home made tomato relish.

You need to be careful of store bought relish, as they often contain gluten and lots of sugar. It's simple to make your own, and it tastes amazing when freshly made. I'll post the recipe for it over the weekend. As for the goats cheese, when I'm food shopping I try to buy Irish, and look for ingredients that are as natural as possible... St Tola is a raw goats milk cheese which I know is available in Fallon&Byrne and Superquinn.