I am a big fan of cheese and onion crisps; I believe that my love for them shall reign supreme and I simply cannot envision a day when I’ll get tired of them. If you, like me, would like to infuse those familiar savoury, oniony, cheesy flavours into crunchy nuggets of chicken while feeling kinda virtuous about your food choices, give these cheese and onion chicken fingers a try. You will not be disappointed 😃

Ingredients (For 2-4 portions):

• 350 g of chicken thighs cut into 1/2 inch thick strips
• A heaped 1/4 tsp of salt; (roughly about 1/4 tsp and a pinch)
• 1/2 tsp of freshly ground pepper
• A clove of garlic, grated
• 2 tbsp mayonnaise
• 50 grams of breadcrumbs or 50 grams (usually a thick cut slice) of lightly toasted bread
• 20-25 grams of parmesan cheese
• 20-25 grams of mature cheddar
• 1 tsp of onion powder
• 1/4 tsp of dried thyme or parsley

Method:

• Preheat the oven at 180° C.
• Add the salt, grated garlic, half of the ground pepper and the mayonnaise to the chicken, mix well and set aside.
• Place the toast in a food processor and pulse until you get slightly coarse breadcrumbs; you can use store bought breadcrumbs instead.
• Grate the parmesan and the cheddar.
• Add the cheeses, onion powder, dried parsley and the rest of the ground pepper to the breadcrumbs and coat the grated cheese in the ingredients very gently. Here, you don’t want to be hasty; the intention is to combine the flavours uniformly without clumping up the cheese so just tossing the cheese in the breadcrumbs using your fingers like a whisk would be best.
• Place half of the cheesy breadcrumbs on a plate, spread it out and place the pieces of chicken over.
• Pour the rest of the crumbs on top and press onto each chicken finger to coat well.
• Carefully place the chicken on a wide baking tray lined with parchment paper and bake in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes.
• After 20 minutes, flip the pieces carefully and bake for another 10 minutes.
• Serve immediately as a snack with with a tomato based dip or on its own or with fresh salad or pasta for lunch/ dinner and enjoy!