William Elliott Hinson
Coconut Chicken

Deep-fried chicken is delicious, everyone knows this. However, sometimes the same old thing gets old. What better way to spice it up than by throwing in some toasted coconut? Even if you do not like coconut, feel free to make the recipe and leave it out. It will make some amazing fried chicken!
Ingredients:
4 Chicken Breasts
2 cup unsweetened coconut
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbs fine sea salt
4 tbs kosher salt
1 tbs garlic powder
1 tbs onion powder
1 tbs smoked paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
4 tbs msg
2 tbs powdered sugar
2 tbs black pepper
4 tbs table sugar
4 eggs
4 tbs milk
Directions:
The night before you plan to make the chicken, trim your chicken breasts and cut them into strips.
Spread out the chicken strips on a baking sheet. Sprinkle kosher salt, table sugar, and half of the msg over the strips. Mix around with your hands to make sure every strip is coated in the brine. Place the chicken in a ziplock bag and place in the refrigerator overnight.
Start heating a quart of oil over medium-high heat in a cast-iron skillet. You want the oil to be between 350 and 375 degrees fahrenheit.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spread out coconut on an oven-safe dish and bake in the oven. Check every three minutes and pull out when coconut is a light golden brown.
Find three shallow dishes like pie pans and lay them out on a work surface. In the first one, mix 2 cups of the flour with the fine sea salt, garlic and onion powder, smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, the rest of your msg, powdered sugar, and black pepper. Whisk to combine. In the second dish, crack four eggs and whisk together with the milk until no streaks remain. In the last dish mix together toasted coconut and remaining flour.
Breading time! Take each strip and first cover it with the flour mixture. Then, drench it in the egg wash. Make sure all of the flour gets hydrated. Finally place the strips in the coconut, pressing to make sure the coconut is fully adhering to the chicken. (If you do not like coconut, simply place the chicken back into the flour mixture after the egg wash.)
Carefully lower chicken strips into preheated oil. Make sure to drop away from you and to never have more than three chicken strips cooking at one time. Flip often. Once tenders are golden brown, pull out of oil and allow to dry on a baking sheet. Keep warm in a low oven until all strips have been fried. Enjoy!