Down Home Done Light

Mindy here and last week I had two glorious days all to myself. My men were off to scout camp and my daughter was visiting friends. So what's a girl to do--especially one on Weight Watchers--when she starts craving fried chicken? And not just any fried chicken, but homemade fried chicken.

Well, one thing that really helps me on WW is knowing what I want and then figuring out how I can satisfy that desire without falling off the wagon. So I decided I was going to make my own version of oven-fried chicken, complete with my lite and creamy mashed potatoes.

First, the chicken.

I thawed out a boneless, skinless chicken breast, then soaked it in low-fat buttermilk for an hour. The acidity in buttermilk acts as a tenderizer and, I think, gives it a little extra moisture.

While it was soaking, I set up my prep area. I lined my baking pan with foil that I sprayed lightly with olive oil. Then, in a small bowl, I seasoned about a cup of flour (you could get away with less) with seasoned salt, salt, and pepper.

In another bowl, I poured about half a cup of egg beaters (you can also use and egg and milk mixture). Mind you, I'm only cooking for one this night.

In the next bowl, is the secret to making my chicken nice and crispy--Panko bread crumbs. These can be found with traditional bread crumbs or in the Asian section of your supermarket. I seasoned those the same way as the flour.

Now we're ready to go.

First, I dip my chicken, still wet with buttermilk, into the flour mixture.

Then it goes into the egg wash.

Then the Panko bread crumbs.

Next it goes onto my prepared pan, and I mist the top of the chicken with olive oil.



Then it goes into a 375 degree oven for approx. 30 minutes.

For the mashed potatoes, I boiled one large potato, skin on, until tender. Mashed it then added a tablespoon of light butter/margarine and approx. 1/3 cup of fat free half and half. Seasoned with salt and pepper and voila! Rich and creamy mashed potatoes without all the fat and calories.

Throw in some steamed broccoli and I was one happy camper.

I know this looks like a lot of food, which was exactly what I wanted to achieve when I used a salad plate. The chicken was crispy on the outside, moist and juicy on the inside.

Of course, when my guys heard about my oven fried chicken, they wanted to try it too.

This was Sunday night's dinner. I skinned the drumsticks before soaking in the buttermilk. And it was more like two and a half cups of flour, a 16 oz container of egg beaters, and almost and entire bag of Panko bread crumbs. Then baked for about 40 minutes.

But it was SO good. And when losing weight, satisfaction is the name of the game.

How do you satisfy your cravings without breaking the calorie bank?