Roasted Chicken Strips Caribbean Style

I made red beans and rice yesterday - perfect on a chilly winter day. But I assumed my kids wouldn't touch the red beans, despite the sausage pieces and their overzealous fondness for rice. The brick-colored goo just doesn't look that appealing.

So as a protein backup plan I pulled out a package of chicken breast strips, with no plan for what to do with them, except keep it simple. Here's what happened, and it was VERY simple with lots of flavor.

And go figure - my picky eater loved the red beans and my spicy eater didn't try them. Kids.

Roasted Chicken Strips - Caribbean Style

2 pounds chicken tenders
1 clove garlic, chopped
3 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons breadcrumbs
Kosher salt - about a teaspoon
Fresh black pepper - about 1/2 teaspoon
2 tablespoons fresh oregano, chopped. (or 1.5 teaspoons dry)
Half a lemon
1 lime
Fresh cilantro

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 
2. Combine garlic,  flour, crumbs, salt, pepper and oregano in a large bowl. Add chicken strips and coat them with the dry mixture. 
3. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Spread a little olive oil around the surface, so the chickens won't stick. 
4. Arrange the chicken strips so they don't touch each other (better browning). Drizzle a very light stream of olive oil over the chickens. Gently squeeze some lemon juice over the chicken strips, but don't release all the juice from the lemon half. 
5. Roast for about 12 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. 
6. Sprinkle remaining lemon juice and lime juice over the chickens, then top with fresh cilantro.

Another aspect of ease was that I didn't want to brown these little strips on the stove and splatter a bunch of oil and butter, so I opted for a foil-line rimmed baking sheet. This would make clean up super fast. In last night's case, nothing got past the foil liner, so essentially the pan was as clean after cooking as it was before.

Rimmed baking pans like this, also sometimes called hotel pans, I believe, are a mainstay in professional kitchens and now in mine too. Simply lining one with foil eliminates anywhere from 50% to 95% of cleanup.