M: Coconut Chicken Cutlets with Pineapple Sauce

I am well on my way to finishing all 10 of Rachael Ray’s top 10 recipes of 2010! Halfway, to be exact =)

This particular recipe I have been pretty excited about since I saw it on the show. I mean, the hubs and I love chicken, we love coconut, we REALLY love pineapple…And, sure enough, we were pleasantly satisfied.

It’s hard to say which recipe has been my favorite so far, but this one is at the top. Because the coconut is unsweetened, the chicken is not overly sweet like you might expect, it had a perfect coconut hint.

And my ultimate favorite part? The pineapple sauce! So good! When I was finished with my meal, I actually stirred some extra sauce into my brown rice and it made for a fantastic little mixture! The only change I made was I chopped up a piece of a poblano pepper instead of a jalapeno and it was a great substitute. If you do like spicy-ness, then I’d use the jalapeno.

I served our chicken with steamed broccoli and brown rice – a seriously awesome dinner.

Coconut Chicken Cutlets

from Rachael Ray

8 chicken cutlets, slightly pounded

1 cup flour

2 eggs

1 cup panko

1 cup grated unsweetened coconut

1-2 TB olive oil

1/2 cup pineapple preserves

1/2 jalapeno, seeded and sliced into rings (I used a piece of poblano)

1 TB rice wine vinegar or tamari

1-2 TB chicken stock

2 scallions, whites and greens sliced

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Place a cooling rack on top of a baking sheet and place in oven.

Arrange 3 shallow dishes: one with the flour, one with the 2 eggs, beaten with a splash of water, and one with the panko and coconut combined.

Heat a thin layer of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper, then coat them in flour, then egg, then panko/coconut mixture. Fry in 2 batches until deep golden in color, 3-4 mins on each side. Keep chicken crisp in warm oven on the baking sheet and repeat with remaining chicken.

in a small skillet over medium-high heat, stir together pineapple preserves, jalapeno, vinegar or tamari, and chicken stock. Reduce until thickened, about 2 minutes. Stir in scallions.

Spoon sauce over your warm crispy chicken. Enjoy!