Sunday Game Day Snack - Potato Chip Chicken Lollipops!

Today's Game Day snack is going out with a bang as it is the last Game Day snack of the regular season. I haven't decided if there will be Game Day snacks for the playoff games - my January is a little busy. And I realized the other week we're going to be away for the Super Bowl which means I don't need to come up with tons of appetizers for my husband and I to snack on.

So I had to make this one good...and it was! To my surprise, this was delicious. It's incredibly easy and very versatile as well. Potato Chip Chicken!! I originally found the recipe here.

I used plain potato chips this time, because that is what we had in the house, but I can totally see using BBQ or cheddar and sour cream. Or even Doritos. Or the Baked Lays variety! So many possibilities...

Here are the ingredients:

1 package chicken tenderloins (you can cut these in half to make nuggets or keep them long. I kept them long).
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
2 cups crushed potato chips
lollipop sticks from a craft or party store
seasonings...
*(I used crushed red pepper flakes and black pepper to season these up a little since I was using plain potato chips)
Your favorite dips, such as honey mustard or BBQ sauce.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Grease a baking sheet.

Crush potato chips onto a plate.

In a large bowl, whisk together egg and milk.

Dip the chicken into the egg mixture, then coat well with potato chips. Repeat this to do a double coat - it holds up better.


Spread the tenderloins onto the baking sheet.


Bake for 10 minutes. Turn nuggets over, and bake for 10 minutes more, until golden brown.

Remove baking sheet from oven, and insert a lollipop stick into each tenderloin.

Serve warm with your favorite dipping sauces and enjoy!!

"Crunchy Cheese Nibblet" Appetizers

While we were stuck in the house during the East Coast blizzard this weekend, I experimented with an appetizer idea.

I wanted to use up some leftover potato chips we had in the house, (I'm all about trying to USE the food we have lately, instead of buying more and more) and I actually found a recipe on AllRecipes.com from a woman named Janis. This is her recipe here.

I tried out her exact recipe, but I also made a batch using some different tastes.

She got mostly positive reviews on her creation...but I definitely have a few ideas on how to improve this for my tastes. All in all, my husband and I enjoyed the appetizer, but agreed it needed some tweaking the next go round.

Here are the ingredients I used for both batches:

1 cup finely shredded Cheddar cheese (yellow)
1 cup crushed potato chips
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon ground mustard
crushed red pepper flakes

1 cup finely shredded Cheddar cheese (sharp white)
1 cup crushed potato chips
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon Bryant & Cooper BBQ sauce
parsley flakes

Directions (same concept for both)

In a bowl, combine all ingredients.


Shape dough into 3/4-in. balls.

Place on ungreased baking sheets and flatten slightly.


Bake at 375 degrees F for 5-8 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to a wire rack.

Serve warm.


Now, here is what I would have changed:

1. I did "flatten" the balls slightly... I think next time I am keeping them in ball shape so they can be served more like a cheese ball with a toothpick.

2. They need slightly more flavoring. Granted, I used plain potato chips...and these would have worlds more flavor if you used like, BBQ Chips or Sour Cream & Cheddar or anything you like. But, if you use plain chips, add more more spice or sauce or whatever.

3. They needed closer to 10 minutes cooking time.

Otherwise, kudos to this lady for being inventive. Here's to experimenting with food!

Sunday Game Day Snack...On The Go!!

This week's Sunday Game Day Snack was totally improvised in a few minutes. My husband and I were down in South Florida at my in-laws vacation house this past weekend. Since there is a full kitchen, I knew there would be an opportunity to make something. We didn't want to buy too many ingredients though, since we were only going to be around for a few days.

As we were walking through the Super Target, the new Wheat Thins Flatbreads caught my eye and they were on sale for just $2.00. An idea began to form in my head and from that I ended up making little Flatbread bites!

This "recipe" took all of 10 minutes to throw together. I ended up microwaving them, but if you are by a grill, you can place them on tin foil and let them heat up for a few minutes until the cheese melts.

Here are the ingredients:
Wheat Thins Flatbreads - Tuscan Herb flavor
1/8 pound sharp white cheddar cheese
diced green pepper
diced shallot
Bulls Eye BBQ Sauce
Cream Cheese

I made a few different combinations of cracker... on some, I spread BBQ sauce and topped it with the cheese, pepper and shallot. One others I spread cream cheese and topped it with cheese, shallot and pepper. Some I just used cheese, pepper and shallot without a sauce and there was also the possibility to combine the BBQ sauce and cream cheese before topping that with the remaining ingredients.


Once I had my crackers assembled, I popped them in the microwave for 20 seconds.

Done! An easy and tasty game day snack on the go!

This snack ended up being very healthy and incredibly tasty at the same time!! It's also a good snack if you are on vacation and have a hotel room or a time share with a kitchen. It was very inexpensive too - the crackers cost me $2.00, the cheese I used (1/8 pound) was all of 85 cents, the green pepper was 89 cents and my little shallot was 9 cents!! We also had a little cup of cream cheese from breakfast that we didn't eat at the restaurant so we took it home, and a little cup of BBQ sauce that was free at a condiment station from where we had lunch.

Enjoy game day!!