"Ritz" Cracker Chicken

One of the biggest challenges I've found with cooking with my IC is making mainly-friendly meals that both kids and grown-ups enjoy. For years everyone in my family loved Ritz Cracker Chicken night. The crumbly, buttery crackers coating a moist piece of chicken- just delicious! After getting IC, this was one of the many meals that I resigned to never make again. That box of Ritz crackers has a crazy amount of ingredients.

However, during one of my weekly grocery store trips, I spotted a box of organic/preservative free crackers in the organic section. They looked just like Ritz crackers, so I bought them to see if they tasted just like Ritz crackers. Turns out they did, and they were gone within 24 hours.. waaay before I got around to cooking with them, Oops! But I bought them again and made this chicken for dinner the same night.

This recipe is a family pleaser. I made it for my younger siblings who are 10 and 12 and my cousin who is 5 when they all came over to hang out and sleep over at our house. I love living close to family, but sometimes it's challenging to feed them things I can enjoy too, especially when they are kids! However, this was a hit. There wasn't a bit left in the pan! As you can probably see from the picture, I served mine with homemade focaccia bread and black-eyed peas. The peas were of course not a favorite for the kiddos, but the benefit of being a cousin/sister is that I don't have to promote complete healthiness, and I get to always serve ice cream for dessert.

One warning: these crackers do have soy emulsifier as one of the incidents. Soy can be an irritant for IBS which is commonly an issue for us with IC. Personally, I can tolerate small amounts of soy once or twice a week. Just be aware of this if its a concern for you!

Ingredients:

1 pkg Boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/2 pkg Late July Organic Buttery Crackers (or another imitation ic-friendly Ritz-like cracker

Butter to coat baking dish

1. Heat oven to 350 degrease

2. Coat baking dish with butter

3. Crush Crackers by putting them in a ziplock and mashing them until no large pieces remain- kids LOVE helping with this step!

4. Cut fat off chicken. Dip in butter, then in crushed crackers, and place in baking dish

5. Pour remaining butter evenly over chicken and sprinkle with mailing crackers

6. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through