Hope you survived April Fool’s Day without being the butt of anyone’s joke. It was a fairly uneventful day at our house, although one of my boys did scream his head off about finding a bug in the house to try to get me to come running. I’m going to have to think of a good one for next year. I remember one year my mom short-sheeted my bed.
Has that ever happened to you? Such a strange feeling to hop into bed, slide your legs down only to suddenly jam your toes against an unexpected endpoint before you even get halfway down the length of the bed. I’m pretty sure she only did it because I had put Saran Wrap on the toilet. OOPS!
Well, my friends, this Coconut Crusted Chicken with Mango Salsa is no joke! Mangos are quickly becoming my new best friend. You know how there are certain foods, you don’t necessarily dislike, but don’t really think to cook with? That used to be me and mangos. Yes, I loved you when I was in Maui three years ago, and every now and then you show up on my take out fish taco, but I’m not really going to bring you home and include you in my daily life…
But lately we are really warming up to each other! I started out using them as a frozen addition to our green smoothies (recipe coming soon!), and when I realized how much I loved that sweet, tropical flavor, I decided to try buying fresh mango. I looked up a little YouTube video on how to properly cut a fresh mango, because I vaguely remembered something about a pit that is the same color as the fruit. It was very helpful! My boys loved the inside-out mango trick.
After falling in love with mangos in my green smoothie, and thinking of more ways to use fresh mangos, making my own mango salsa naturally came to mind. It’s so simple and fresh. And you can control the heat by using more or less spicy peppers. I used one whole jalapeño pepper without the seeds and membrane, and my salsa was very mild.
So then I wondered, what do I want to top with this amazing mango salsa? How about coconut crusted chicken?
I did a simple flour/egg/coconut dipping sequence with some thinly cut chicken breasts, and then pan fried them in butter. I love the sweet, spicy, crunchy combination. The textures and flavors are perfect together!
Slicing the chicken into thin filets helps them cook through faster. So place one hand flat on top of your chicken breast, and with a sharp knife, parallel to your cutting board, slice the chicken breast into two thin filets. I found that with a chicken breast that was thicker, my coconut crust was nicely browned before the chicken was cooked through.
We enjoyed this as a light dinner, but it would be fabulous over rice, or sliced and stuffed into tacos. So if you don’t already, branch out a little and get friendly with your local mangos! If you already love mangos, let me know your favorite way to eat them.
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Coconut Crusted Chicken With Mango Salsa
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 (small) 1x
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Pan Fry
- Cuisine: Mexican
Description
Chicken coated in a crispy coconut breading topped with a sweet and mildly spicy mango salsa.
Ingredients
Mango Salsa
- 2 fresh mangos, peeled & diced
- 1 jalapeño, seeds and membranes removed, finely diced
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro chopped
- 1/4 cup red onion diced
- juice from half a lime (about 1 tablespoon)
- sprinkle of salt to taste
Chicken
- 2 chicken breasts, split horizontally to make four thin filets, total
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoons milk
- 1 cup sweetened coconut flakes
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 2–3 tablespoons butter
Instructions
Mango Salsa
- Toss the mango, jalapeño, cilantro, and red onion together in a small bowl. Squeeze lime juice over the top and sprinkle with salt. Stir to combine, and cover until ready to serve. I like to serve it at room temperature. Refrigerate leftovers.
Chicken
- Place flour and salt in one shallow bowl, the egg and milk in another bowl, and the coconut and flour into yet another shallow bowl.
- One by one, dip the pieces of chicken into the flour, then egg, then coconut. Press the coconut to the chicken to get as much to stick as you can.
- In a large nonstick or cast iron skillet on medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and spread around the pan. When the pan is hot, place the chicken into the pan and cook for about 5 minutes on each side, or until the coconut is golden and the inside of the chicken is cooked through. The exact time will depend on the thickness of your chicken. Add a little more butter when turning the chicken if your pan is dry.
- Plate the chicken and top with mango salsa.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Serving
- Calories: 474
- Sugar: 32g
- Sodium: 595mg
- Fat: 17g
- Saturated Fat: 11g
- Unsaturated Fat: 4.9g
- Trans Fat: 0.3g
- Carbohydrates: 56g
- Fiber: 5.8g
- Protein: 25g
- Cholesterol: 117mg
Chloe @ foodlikecake says
I love mango so this is awesome 🙂
Ilona @ Ilona's Passion says
Delicious, mango and chicken, what a perfect dish. I have to try it:)
Julie says
Thanks Ilona, you’ll love it!
CakePants says
This looks delicious!! I love mango salsa, but I’m usually at a loss for what to do with it other than just eat it with chips, so this will be a welcome change!
Julie says
Hope you enjoy! Thanks for stopping by :0)
Kathi @ Deliciously Yum! says
Julie, you made one of the best-looking dishes I’ve seen in a while. So glad you’re warming up to mangoes again. I adore that beautiful fruit, so needless to say, I am all over this mango salsa!! Wish I would have been invited to your house for dinner, ha!
Julie says
Would love if you came over for dinner Kathi! Especially if you brought your carrot cake for dessert. It looks amazing!
Jenna says
I have just started liking mangos more recently as well! It’s sometimes hard to find the perfectly ripe ones. I really enjoy eating mango salsa on the tamales from Trader Joes! 🙂 Can’t wait to try this chicken recipe!
Julie says
I think I got lucky this time picking ripe ones. They just had a tiny bit of give when I pressed on the skin. Hope you get a chance to try this recipe – we loved it!
Robin says
I attempted to make this for dinner tonight… The salsa turned out great, though I added a little bit of pineapple juice because I didn’t think the lime juice was enough. Next time, I won’t use as much jalapeno (half or a quarter would be enough for us). As for the chicken, we cooked it in a cast iron skillet, over medium-hi heat, but the coconut burnt 🙁 We ended up having pizza… the salsa will be good for fish tacos another night!
thanks for sharing this recipe!
Julie says
Robin, definitely would need to cook on medium heat. Always frustrating when you have to go to plan B for dinner! Hope you do get to enjoy the salsa on fish tacos. That sounds so good!
Taylor says
I just made this for dinner, and it was fantastic! Since we’re living in the Philippines for a short while, this is a great way to use the fresh mango and coconut we have access to. Thank you for sharing!
Julie says
I’m so glad you liked it! I just peeked at your blog and can’t wait to sit down and go through it page by page. Thanks for stopping by Taylor!
Beverly says
Amazing dish! I used almond flour and toasted coconut. My husband said he usually doesn’t like very fancy food but loved it. He said he loved the chicken and wants to try it with tilapia too. He told me not to lose the recipe. Thanks!
Julie says
Beverly, I’m so glad you and your husband enjoyed. Thanks for letting me know!
Jess says
This recipe is GENIUS! I made this tonight for dinner and my husband is still raving about it. Such a wonderful combination of ingredients. Will be making this once a week while mangoes are in season. Thanks for sharing! ☺
Julie says
Thanks Jess! So glad you all enjoyed it.
Kristi says
This was an awesome dish! Lately, I feel like my dishes have been mundane. We eat the same thing almost every week and I wanted variety. I came across this recipe on Pinterest and thought, “Why not” – it sounds delicious. I called my sister because I was excited and she said it sounded gross… Whatever, her loss. She doesnt like coconut.
Well, it came out amazing. Hubby loved it and wants me to make it again. We don’t do well with jalepenos, so that wasn’t in our salsa. His only suggestion was to cut up the mango smaller and less cilantro- which is an easy fix. All in all, it was a successful dinner.
Julie says
So happy to hear you liked it Kristi!
Karras says
This is a winner!