Healthy-ish Chicken Fried Chicken in Under 20 Minutes Recipe

Looking for quick, high-protein dinner ideas? In this incredibly simple three-ingredient recipe, I’m sharing my healthier take on a Southern comfort-food classic: Chicken Fried Chicken…

If you’re a busy mom on a budget like me, dinners need to be kid-friendly, quick to prepare, and require minimal ingredients.

I’ve been meaning to share this ridiculously simple recipe for quite some time (I know it has been a hot minute since I have broken out of my diy/decor content), and with my boys starting school next week, I was reminded of this quick, high-protein/low-fat chicken dinner that would be perfect for anyone’s back-to-school meal rotation.

So out of sheer laziness mixed with the desire to appeal to all the tastebuds in my fam (while also trying to stick to a somewhat reasonable diet), my “healthy-ish” Chicken Fried Chicken hack was birthed.

No unnecessarily complicated, pretentious bullsh*t here. If you can bake chicken nuggets and mix together some store-bought gravy, you too can do this, mama.

Let me show you just how embarrassingly easy this meal is to prepare…

3 Ingredient Chicken Fried Chicken Instructions:

Ingredients Needed:

• 1-2 Packs of CauliPower Frozen Chicken Tenders (1 pack is just enough to serve my family of 4 with no leftovers)
• 1 Country Gravy Mix Packet
• 2 cups of water (for gravy)

One of the major appeals to using the CauliPower frozen chicken tenders versus other brands or hand-frying the chicken yourself is that these particular tenders are not only convenient, they are low in fat (1.5 grams per 3oz), high in protein (14 grams per 3oz), AND gluten-free.

Making this Recipe Fully Gluten-Free or “Clean”-

That being said, if you are trying to stick to a super clean, gluten-free diet, you will probably want to omit the store-bought gravy as it is neither gluten-free or all that healthy (just low in fat).

If you have a gluten intolerance, Pioneer does offer a gluten-free Country gravy mix. If you wish to be a little more “clean”, you could concoct your own gravy from organic grass-fed butter, chicken broth and organic flour (which I have done before).

With these factors considered, the store-bought gravy mix is why I have labeled this recipe as only “healthy-ish”. Now for the rest of you who don’t care about such matters, let’s get on with the recipe…

(Step 1). Cook your frozen chicken tenders according to the instructions on the packaging. For a conventional oven, bake them at 425 degrees for 17-19 minutes. For an air fryer (which I like best), preheat air fryer for 3 minutes at 360°F and then cook for 10-12 minutes or until the “breading” looks nice and crispy and the internal temperature has reached 165 degrees.

(Step 2). While your chicken is cooking, you can go ahead and make the gravy. Simply follow the instructions on the packet (which on the particular brand I use only require 2 cups of water, a whisk and a stovetop pot). Note that each brand requires different preparation.

(Step 3). Once your chicken has finished and your gravy is the proper consistency, you can spoon the gravy mixture over your chicken and serve (I like seasoned, organic green beans with my Chicken Fried Chicken).

See how freakin’ easy that was?!

As noted from the photo above, my eight-year-old loves this recipe with the gravy. However, if you have picky eaters, you can omit the gravy and serve the chicken with their preferred dipping sauce—this is what I do for my ten-year-old.

For all my fellow lazy cooks out there who try to eat relatively macro-friendly, I hope you found this recipe worthy of adding to your fall rotation.

Thank you so much for spending some time with me this week! If you found this post helpful, could you please show your support by sharing it with a friend or on social media?…

Now get out there and design some good vibes along with a fabulous life!