Baked Chicken Fingers Crusted with Panko and Sesame Seeds with Spicy Chili Peanut Dipping Sauce

Place bread crumbs and sesame seeds into a dry saucepan. Make sure that the saucepan is large enough so that the crumb mixture is spread out evenly and can toast evenly. Heat the crumb mixture over medium-low heat; stir often. (It may seem like it takes a while for the crumb mixture to start toasting, but once it starts, it toasts quickly. You want to stand by and stir the mixture often to prevent burning.) Once the crumb mixture is toasted, remove from heat and set aside.

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Set a sheet of plastic wrap down on a cutting board. Place both chicken breasts on the plastic wrap. Place another sheet of plastic wrap over the chicken breasts. With the meat mallet, pound out the chicken breasts to slightly flatten/even them out. Don’t flatten them out too thin; just enough to even out the meat for four nice chicken strips. Once the meat is flattened out, discard the plastic wrap.

Slice the chicken breasts diagonally to get the most out of it. I ended up with some nice meaty chicken strips this way. Once the chicken is sliced, wash up and set up your dredging station by lining up your flour, egg mixture, crumb mixture, and lightly greased baking pan.

Dredge each chicken strip into the flour, egg, crumb mixture, and then set on the baking sheet. Once all of the strips are nicely coated, bake in the oven for approximately 25 minutes or until chicken has an internal temperature of 165°F.

For the spicy chili peanut dipping sauce:
In a small dipping bowl, mix all of the ingredients thoroughly until a nice thick dipping sauce has formed. Garnish with a few extra scallions (optional).