(Baked) Fried Chicken on Mango Avocado Salad + Fight Hunger with Walmart!

Even as Tim and I made these (baked) fried chicken salads last Saturday, it was with an awareness that we are remarkably privileged to be able to go to the store, pick out what we want to bring home and then, together, cook it to have something good to eat. Not everybody knows these luxuries. With that in mind, we’re glad to write this post as ambassadors for Walmart’s current Fight Hunger program, one step towards eradicating the real issues of hunger today, with the help of consumers and six key vendors, working towards an overall goal of providing 75 million meals to Feeding America Food Banks nationwide (and they’re close!). Below, in this sponsored post, we are sharing some information about Walmart’s current program along with a recipe for the killer chicken we made last weekend, set on top of salads that, in honor of the work Walmart is doing now, feature ingredients found at our local retail location.

In our protected pocket of middle-class America, it’s hard to believe that one in six Americans (!) is struggling with hunger. But unfortunately, according to the USDA, that is exactly the case. What’s even harder to believe is that we can do anything to help when we’re just small people with small budgets ourselves. Because of this, most cities have food banks and other charities set up that try to provide meals to people who need them—here in Nashville, we have Second Harvest, for example—but, even still, the needs are big. One way that Walmart is responding is that, now through May 3, it’s giving consumers a way to make a difference every time they shop: every time someone purchases a participating product at one of its stores, the company gives the equivalent of one meal to Feeding America. If you don’t purchase participating products, you can participate in the initiative by giving $1, $2, $5 or other donations at the register when you check out. And if you’re on social media, tag a photo with #WeSparkChange and Walmart will donate a meal each time, up to $1,500,000, to Feeding America.

Sometimes when we’re at our local Walmart picking up distilled water or paper products, we might grab some of the cheap and ripe avocados as we go. Recently, we decided to see what else we might find and walked away with organic spring mix and mangos alongside our $0.98 avocado finds. At home, we chopped the ripe mangos and avocados, tossed them with finely chopped spring mix and a dressing of olive oil, balsamic and lemon juice, salting everything to taste. It was the perfect sweet and creamy mixture to have our breaded chicken pieces on—the same breaded chicken pieces Tim made me a few weeks ago when I was craving fried chicken, ah!, they’re so good!—the night before we celebrated his birthday last week. It’s also a testament to simple pleasures and simple choices that can make a big difference, whether in the simple course of a day or in another person’s life.

To learn more about Fight Hunger, go to Walmart.com/FightHunger

(Baked) Fried Chicken on Mango Avocado Salad Slaw
Serves 3 to 4 or, 2 people 2 times

One quick note: We almost always end up with extra flour mixture when we bread something like chicken, so if you want to avoid this, you could lower the flour in the proportions below. I’m just leaving it the way we did it though.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons coconut oil, for baking sheet
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts

for the egg mixture:
2 eggs
1/ teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

for the flour mixture:
1 cup all-purpose (einkorn) flour (or other all-purpose flour)
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons chipotle chili
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

for the breadcrumbs:
1 cup toasted breadcrumbs (we toasted einkorn sourdough bread and blitzed it in the food processor)
1 tablespoon all-purpose seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt

for drizzling on chicken:
about 4 tablespoons(ish) olive oil

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375F degrees and grease a rimmed baking sheet (we added maybe 2 tablespoons coconut oil and stuck the pan in the oven for a few minutes while we assembled stations, to melt oil).

Next, create a chicken assembly station, with four main stations:

1. Chicken: Cut chicken into strips, aiming for similar thickness and size among all of them, and place them on a plate.
2. Eggs: Crack two eggs into a wide bowl, and add ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper, whisking together.
3. Flour: Place flour and spices under “flour mixture” on a third plate or wide bowl, stirring together.
4. Breadcrumbs: Place one cup toasted breadcrumbs, 1 tablespoon all-purpose seasoning and 1/2 teaspoon salt on a fourth plate or wide bowl, stirring everything together.

Begin dredging process. Working with one or a few pieces of chicken at a time, coat each one in flour, dip in eggs and dredge in breadcrumbs, making sure each piece is really thoroughly coated in the breadcrumb mixture. Place chicken pieces on prepared oiled baking sheet (remove from oven if you haven’t already).

Once all the chicken is coated and placed on baking sheet, drizzle the top of all the pieces with olive oil.

Place baking sheet in oven and cook for 30 minutes, using kitchen tongs to turn all the chicken about halfway through.

Meanwhile, make the salad slaw!

Mango Avocado Salad Slaw
Serves 2

Ingredients:
2 cups finely chopped salad greens
2 mangos, cubed (about 1 cup)
1 avocado, cubed (about 1 cup)
1 tablespoon ribboned fresh basil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Salt, to taste

Directions:
Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl, tossing well. Taste and adjust salt as you like. Serve beneath baked fried chicken from above recipe!

disclaimer: As a participant in this campaign with Walmart, I have received compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. As always, however, all thoughts and opinions are my own. also note that Walmart is not responsible for donating the meals, but rather the supplier partners listed above are responsible for that. As part of this initiative, *the monetary equivalent of meals will be donated. $0.10 is equivalent to one meal secured by Feeding America on behalf of local member food banks. See Walmart.com/FightHunger for details. #wesparkchange #shop2give #ad

*Feeding America National Office Approved Meal Cost Calculation
(Effective July 1, 2014 — June 30, 2015)

$1 helps provide 10 meals
1 meal is equivalent to $0.10

Secured by Feeding America on behalf of local member food banks

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