~Coconut Chicken with Apricot Sauce~

BEST CHICKEN EVER!!! Jeremy loved this recipe. He even said, "This is the best chicken you've made!" The combination of the sweet coconut and the sweet and sour sauce makes for a beautiful blend of flavors. I usually don't like cooking chicken in the oven because it tends to get dry, but this recipe made the chicken stay incredibly moist. Yes. I love coconut. It's great in cookies, on candy bars, and I learned tonight that it is good on chicken! Who knew? Jeremy wished there was more sauce, so the way I have the recipe on here is how much sauce I would recommend. I wished there was more sauce as well.

I made mine with green beans and white rice because I was out of brown rice. Normally we don't even have a starch and if we do, it's usually brown rice (healthier).

This is such a simple recipe. Aside from prepping the chicken, the part that took the longest was waiting for the oven to heat up, and waiting for the chicken to cook!

you'll need:

4 boneless chicken breasts

1 egg

1 c. sweetened coconut flakes

1/2 c. whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1/2 c. butter, melted

1/2 c. apricot preserves (sugarless)

4 Tbs. Dijon mustard

get busy:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place a cooking rack on top of a cookie sheet. Beat the egg in a small bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the coconut, flour, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Dip each chicken breast in the egg, then into the second mixture bowl. Place onto a rack over the cookie sheet (see picture). This is so the butter has somewhere to go, instead of cook into your chicken. Evenly pour the melted butter over the breasts. Bake for 35-40, turning once so the other side cooks.

Apricot sauce:

Combine the apricot preserve and Dijon mustard. Place in the fridge to chill until the chicken is done. SO easy!

What's great about this chicken is you can freeze it up to a month, take it out and bake at 400 for 20 minutes and it will taste the same.