Coconut and Cinnamon Crispy Chicken

The other night I was pretty pushed for time as me and my son had busy all day and I had some chicken thighs marinating in some buttermilk but hadn't actually decided what I was going to coat them in until we bought some flavoured popcorn and it gave me a brainwave...I know strange ehh it comes to me in the strangest ways hehe! Anyway this was a caramel, cinnamon and coconut flavour popcorn and while I was eating it I thought that (without the caramel) it would taste pretty darn good on some chicken so off I went home to the kitchen and made a coconut and cinnamon breadcrumb for my chicken and it was fantastic...just enough coconut and cinnamon flavour to make our dinner something different and flavoursome :)) it even got a huge thumbs up from my son...mission accomplished! The secret to moist and tender breaded chicken whether its fried or oven cooked is to marinate it in buttermilk...honestly it's works wonders :)

Coconut and Cinnamon Crispy Chicken

4 chicken thighs

250ml buttermilk or 250ml milk and 1 tbsp lemon juice

2 -3 slices of bread

5 tbsp desiccated coconut 

3/4 tsp cinnamon (ground)

Salt and pepper

Plain flour

1 egg (beaten)

Pour the buttermilk into a deep bowl (or add the milk and lemon juice and allow to stand for 10 minutes) 

Add the chicken thighs and cover with cling film for at least 3 hours, overnight is good too

Pre heat the oven to 190/180c fan

Place the bread in a food processor and blitz to form breadcrumbs. Add the desiccated coconut and the ground cinnamon and salt and pepper and blitz again until fully incorporated. Pour this on to a plate.

Pour a little flour onto a plate and the beaten egg on another

Lift the chicken out of the buttermilk and place in the flour bowl. Coat with flour and add the chicken to the egg bowl and cover with the egg. Then finally add the chicken to the coconut/cinnamon breadcrumbs and coat fully.

Place on a lined baking tray and repeat with the remaining chicken thighs

Spray a little olive oil finely over the chicken

Pop into the oven for around. 30-40 minutes until golden in colour and the chicken is cooked

I served mine with garlic and cinnamon roasted veg and chips