Baked "Rats"

Sue here today. I wanted to quickly post our Baked "Rats" to wrap up our Halloween recipes for 2013. 

We had so much fun, once again, coming up with our Halloween Dinner 2013. We hope you click over to that post and let us know what you think!

These were inspired by the Kentucky Fried WTF we found on Instructables. 

Ours turned out a little more frog-ish than rat-ish but I think that's just because we kept breaking off the tails. The tails definitely help to make these look more rat-like.

I was surprised how easy they were to make, well, except for the stupid tails. 

I would like to try these again but next time I think I will also cut the tip of the chicken breast off to form a separate head shape and then reattach the head like we did the other appendages. I think that would help it look less frog-like as well.

Baked "Rats"

Ingredients

4 - 6 chicken breasts, boneless/skinless

a good handful pretzel sticks (~30)

1 cup flour

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup Panko bread crumbs

1/2 cup crushed black tortilla chips

salt & pepper

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

8 - 12 strands of spaghetti, cooked

1 cup BBQ sauce

Directions

Preheat oven to 400. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, set aside.

For each rat - cut a chicken breast in a tear drop shape (this will be the body of the rat). Cut the excess chicken into 4 equal size rectangle shapes (these will be the legs/arms)

Place the body on a flat work surface. Stick 4 pretzel sticks into the body where you want the legs and arms to go. Gently squish the pieces of chicken you cut for the appendages onto each pretzel. It's okay if the pretzel pokes out a bit.

Next: place the 1 cup of flour in a shallow pan. Place the beaten eggs in a separate shallow pan. In a third shallow pan stir together the bread crumbs, black tortilla crumbs, salt & pepper, and garlic and onion powder. 

Dip each rat, first in the flour - then in the egg, and then in the crumbs. Be sure to coat the entire surface of the rat. Place back on cookie sheet. 

Dip 2 strands of spaghetti in the egg and then the crumbs. Insert into the butt end of one of the rats. Repeat with the rest of the rats. 

Bake at 400 for about 20 minutes.

Remove from oven and, using a basting or pastry brush, cover each rat in BBQ sauce. Be sure to coat the entire surface (bottom side of the rat is optional). 

Cook an additional 10 or so minutes, until chicken is completely cooked through.

Remove from oven and serve hot. We served them on skewers.

Initially we hadn't planned on adding the BBQ sauce but they just were not baking up very dark. We decided to add the sauce to up the gross-ness factor.

Can you see what I mean about maybe cutting off a piece of the body and then reattaching it with a pretzel to make the head look more separate? I think that would look a bit better. 

As is, they still grossed out a few people. 

They taste delicious, by the way. Chicken in a crunchy coating and then BBQ sauce.....what's not to love?