If your son is anything like mine (he’s 11), he comes home from school ravenous. Like he’s been traipsing through the Sahara Desert for a fortnight with no food and water, instead of actually being at senior school and having full access to £2 worth of pasta at lunchtime. If, God forbid, I’ve actually been doing something other than prepare dinner for him for the exact moment he walks in the door, then there is ALL the moaning. I’ve been able to combat this by shoving an apple in his hand when he comes home, and there’s a slight roll of the eyes as he takes it, but then I have peace and quiet until at least 4.45pm, which is when the “When’s dinner?” texts from upstairs begin. I wish I was joking. But that’s where my recipe for Slimming World KFC Chicken comes in!

During the week I need easy to prepare, quick(ish) to cook meals that we can all eat as a family. My eldest works different hours every day so I just save him leftovers and he eats them when he comes home, and one dish I’ve been testing out is the Slimming World KFC Chicken recipe (a fakeaway if you will.) I’ve made it a few times now so figured it was a good time to share it with you, along with the different tweaks I can suggest to make it syn-free. The syns vary, depending on what coating you use, but because this chicken is baked, as opposed to fried, the syns are minimal. I normally serve this chicken dish with Slimming World wedges, which you can simply make in the oven or there’s a great offer on a Tefal ActiFry Low Fat Healthy Fryer at the moment, or Slimming World Oxo Roast Potatoes and a big salad.

Ingredients:

400g boneless & skinless chicken (breasts/legs/thighs) – cubed/sliced or kept whole

1 x chicken stock cube

1 x crushed clove of garlic

1 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp mixed herbs

1 tsp mustard powder

1 x small pinch of cumin

Pinch of salt and black pepper

Frylight spray or spray oil

2 x eggs (beaten) for coating

1 x 150g packet of panko breadcrumbs – (variations include using cornflakes, sage & onion stuffing, Weetabix, or 2 slices of wholemeal bread (you could use your HexB.)

Method:

Pre-heat your oven to 190°c degrees (my oven is dead so I put it on 210° to get any semblance of heat from it).

with some Frylight/spray oil (prevents sticking). I often use non-stick baking paper too. Spray a Baking Tray with some Frylight/spray oil (prevents sticking). I often use non-stick baking paper too.

Cut your chicken into strips or cubes (or you can leave in whole pieces).

Put the dry ingredients (the spices, stock cube and panko/breadcrumbs) in a food processor and blitz. Place on a plate.

Beat your eggs and put in a separate bowl.

Take a piece of chicken and dip in the beaten egg. Remove and put into breadcrumb mixture. Remove and place on baking tray.

Repeat until all chicken is coated and bake for 25-50 minutes, depending on your cut of chicken.

I forgot to photograph half the ingredients, that’s how professional I am. But you get the gist, plus you can add seasonings to taste.

I think some people struggle to find panko in their supermarket so I thought I’d just show you a photo of the packaging – I found it opposite the gravy granules aisle if that helps!

Add the seasonings to the breadcrumbs (whatever type you choose) and then give them a quick blitz in the food processor. Although you could totally skip this step, just chop up the chicken stock cubes as they can be a bit sticky.

Coat the chicken pieces in the beaten egg.

Place the chicken pieces in the seasoned breadcrumbs and coat. I’ll be honest. a lot of coating will try and fall off at this point so sit on it if you have to. This could get messy.

Place the coated pieces of chicken on a Baking Tray lightly sprayed with Frylight/spray oil and bake for 25-50 minutes (depending on what cut of chicken you use.)

I really need to work on my salad game … but this is delicious! I’m also going to try out the syn-free cous cous version soon.

(FEEL FREE TO PIN THIS RECIPE)

Syns:

According to Google and again, Syn Police … please don’t shoot me if I’m slightly out, but there are 27 syns in a 150g packet of panko (4.5 syns per 25g) but one packet will easily feed a family of 4. Alternatively, if you use your HexB allowance and use wholemeal breadcrumbs, it’s syn-free. As is cous cous (described below). If you have any questions about syns, message me and I’ll do my best to help you work it out.

Tweaks:

There is a way you can use plain syn-free cous cous as a coating (the flavoured cous cous is synned), but I haven’t tried that out yet. You would need to soak the cous cous along with the seasonings, with boiling water for five minutes then add the beaten eggs to form a sticky coating and cover the chicken with that. But quite frankly, I get in enough of a mess as it is so I’ve avoided it so far. But Slimming World would see using cous cous as an official tweak and it’s just down to how uber strict you want to be. But the calories are pretty minimal, it’s only being using as a coating (as opposed to a eating a whole cake) so you won’t be over-eating. This one is up to you.

The same could be said for using Smash as a coating – it’s syn-free but seen as a tweak. Personally, life’s too short to syn absolutely everything I say, and I hear it’s just as tasty.

Also, when it comes to seasonings, like with most recipes, adjust the seasonings to suit your own personal tastes. I’ve tried adding chilli powder – didn’t add enough so couldn’t taste it, so will add a whole teaspoon next time (wish me luck!) and I also think it might benefit from an extra chicken stock cube, but it’s a case of practice makes perfect and it’s fun experimenting.

This is one of those dishes that Dexter, my son, really enjoys making with me so it might be a good idea to get the kids involved, and when I say ‘involved’ I mean get them to do it for you whilst you put your feet up, have a gin and watch The Chase.

Good luck!

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