Wasabi peas add crunch, color to chicken’s crust

Once in awhile I become obsessed with an ingredient or a recipe and spend an inordinate amount of time trying to make it useful to me.

This has worked out well (okra, fennel), and not so well (oat cakes).

My last such adventure was with wasabi peas. Don’t ask me how this idea got stuck in my head, I just decided one day that I should be able to crush a handful of these fried, spicy objects and use them in a manner that would produce dinner.

It seemed logical: Wasabi peas have a lot of flavor and crunch.

Google, my usual accomplice, produced few suggestions. I found a couple of recipes that used crushed peas as a coating for salmon, but not much else.

Clearly, the world needed this research.

I had two ideas: Make a crust for something or make a filling for something. The filling idea was quickly abandoned when it turned out that wasabi peas add negative qualities to deviled eggs (a waste of four experimental eggs). On to crust.

I tried it with fish, pork and chicken, with binders like egg and oil, and extras of flour and panko. I tried pan-frying and baking.

I imagine pure science works like this, although with results more meaningful for humankind.

Still, what I have to offer is an incredibly easy dish that’s tasty, has a nice crunch and is an eerie shade of green. Too bad St. Patrick’s Day has passed.

Important point learned: Wasabi peas have a bullet-to-the-brain spiciness that can clear your sinuses. Crush them and they lose most of that pungency. Their flavor is quite mild, yet adds enough seasoning to a dish that you don’t need anything else, not even salt.

I settled on using chicken tenders, strips of breast meat that require no slicing or other prepping. They cook quickly and turn out, well, tender. I also settled on mayonnaise to coat the chicken so the crust stays put. And I went with baking, because the coating burns easily when fried.

And that’s about it. Once you crush the peas — which can be done in a food processor, blender or with a rolling pin — all you have to do is coat the chicken and put it in the oven.

In the end you get green chicken and that should be a conversation starter.

CHICKEN TENDERS WITH WASABI PEA CRUST

By Betty Shimabukuro

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 cup wasabi peas
• 1 pound chicken tenders
• 1-2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 1 lime

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a baking sheet with vegetable oil.

Crush wasabi peas in a food processor or blender until finely ground. Put 3/4 of the ground peas on a plate; reserve the rest.

Coat chicken pieces evenly in mayonnaise, then roll in ground peas. Place on prepared baking sheet; bake 10 minutes, turning pieces halfway.

Turn on broiler and let chicken get crisp and slightly brown, about 2 minutes, watching carefully so crust doesn’t burn.

Remove chicken to serving dish. Squeeze lime juice over chicken. Sprinkle with reserved ground peas. Serves 3.

Approximate nutritional information, per serving (using 2 tablespoons mayonnaise): 390 calories, 14 g total fat, 3 g saturated fat, 75 mg cholesterol, 300 mg sodium, 28 g carbohydrate, no fiber, 7 g sugar, 41 g protein.

Write By Request, Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, Honolulu 96813; or email requests to bshimabukuro@staradvertiser.com.