"Cornflake-Crusted" Baked Chicken and Sweet Potato Fries - Mar 25, 2011

This meal falls solidly into our 'Retro Dinners' category, although that category didn't actually take off like I'd planned. I guess it turns out that Nick and I don't get cravings for meals from our past all that often. It's pretty fun, however, when we do. I'll attribute this one to all the KFC adds running during the NCAA Men's Basketball tourney right now (Go Badgers!). We used this recipe, but instead of cornflakes, I used up the remainder of the multi grain flakes I had purchased to make marshmallow Christmas wreaths (remember, the ones with the red hots? Come to think of it, those might qualify as retro). The chicken was pretty good, although I think it would have been better with actual cornflakes.

Now, on to the amazing part of the meal...sweet potato fries. Honestly, nine times out of ten I'm a traditionalist when it comes to french fries. Sweet potato fries just don't hold the allure for me that they do for some. That being said, we are still slowly working through the massive amounts of sweet potatoes that we received from our CSA last fall and I thought this would be a good use. I also read somewhere recently that using coconut oil makes excellent sweet potato fries, and I just happened to have a giant tub of it because it was on sale and Heidi Swanson recommends it as a healthy alternative to vegetable and canola oils. So after cutting up a couple of sweet potatoes, I tossed them with about 2 Tbsp of coconut oil, which I melted in the microwave since it's a solid at room temperature, and seasoned with salt, pepper and smoked Spanish paprika. Next I spread them out in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet and baked at 400 deg F for about 45 min, turning occasionally to ensure even baking. Sooo good. Let's just say I think I know how we're going to use up the rest of our sweet potato stash.

And, because no circa 1985 dinner plate would be complete without a veggie side dish, we made a simple little spinach salad to balance out our protein and our starch.  My middle school home ec teacher would be proud.