Amazin Cajun Chicken Strips Recipe and Char Crust Dry Rub Giveaway (Giveaway Closed)

**The giveaway is now over (but the recipe is still delicious & highly recommended!)Congratulations to Valerie Taylor Mabrey who won this giveaway!***

I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to review some Char Crust Dry Rub, and I know my husband and I are both going to be sad when we run out (luckily a store in town sells it, so we can get more). One of the flavors we got to try was "Amazin' Cajun" and I want to share my chicken strip recipe I made with it! (PS: Read to the end to find out how to enter to win some Char Crust for yourself!)

What you need:

• boneless skinless chicken
• Char Crust Amazin' Cajun Dry Rub (we used about 1/4-1/3 of a packet for two large chicken breast halves which was enough for for about 3 adult meals-we had leftover chicken for the next day & enough Char Crust to do this again 2 or 3 more times!)

What you do:

• Cut off any big chunks of fat, veins, etc. (anything you don't want to eat)
• Put some Amazin Cajun dry rub in a bowl
• Coat each piece of chicken in Amazin Cajun dry rub
• Place each coated piece of chicken in a baking pan
• Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, flipping chicken strips after 8 minutes if desired.
• Eat!! (As with almost all meat, it is optimal to let it rest for about 5 minutes or so before cutting it open, but it is still delicious immediately.)

before baking-chicken strips completely coated, 1 lightly coated, and some uncoated

My thoughts:

• I actually used a lasagna pan lined with a Silpat to cook it and it worked really really well. If you don't have a Silpat, parchment paper would work well too.
• You need a pan with sides though so that juices don't drip out into your oven. There weren't a ton of juices (Char Crust seals them in), but enough that you wouldn't want them dripping off a cookie sheet and starting a fire in your oven.
• If you don't like a ton of spices, put a tablespoon or two in a bowl and then pat however much you want on each piece of chicken. I did one chicken strip with just a little bit of the seasoning and it was actually really good and much less spicy than the ones that were totally coated.The less coated though, the more juices will come out.
• This would work well with any of the Char Crust flavors, and you could do fun combinations like Ginger Teriyaki Char Crust chicken strips with stir fry veggies, or Garlic Peppercorn Char Crust chicken strips with spaghetti noodles and marinara or alfredo sauce.

The Giveaway:

You could win a 4-pack featuring the following flavors of Char Crust (descriptions taken from Char Crust website):

•  Roasted Garlic Peppercorn features the robust flavor of roasted garlic and onions with the zing of peppercorns and a hint of Worcestershire and lavender. Its versatility has made it a best seller. It complements steaks, lamb, seafood, pork, poultry, and potatoes.
• Ginger Teriyaki is a balance of sweet teriyaki, fragrant ginger, plus a tingly touch of wasabi that lends a new dimension and creates a modern teriyaki interpretation. It complements chicken, fish, and steak.
• Amazin’ Cajun is a spicy-sweet blend of piquant cayenne pepper, onion, garlic, oregano and a mélange of other Mardi Gras flavors. It brings the sublime heat of New Orleans to catfish, chicken, shrimp, and even “dirty” rice.
• All American Barbecue takes the best flavors of American barbecue and blends them into a tangy-sweet, slightly spicy rub. It has rich molasses from Memphis, tangy tomato from Kansas City, mustard, pepper and vinegar from the Carolinas, plus a wisp of smoke from Texas.

To enter to win a 4 pack of Char Crust dry rub spices, visit the Char Crust website and then leave a comment below telling me which flavor you think your family would like most.

Then, for extra entries, do any of the following and leave a seperate comment for each:

• Like Char Crust on Facebook
• Follow @CrunchyConMom on Twitter
• Pin or repin this recipe on Pinterest (you can only do this once)
• Tweet about this giveaway i.e. "I'm entering to win delicious @CharCrust Dry Rub from @CrunchyConMom & you can too! Enter here: http://goo.gl/CiOmO" and leave the link to your tweet in your comment (you can do this once each day)
• Leave a thoughtful comment on another Crunchy Con Mom post and tell me which post you commented on (you can do this once each day)

On Wednesday April 11th at midnight I'll draw a winner, so be sure to enter before then. I'll contact the winner by e-mail to get their mailing info, and if I don't hear back from them after 48 hours, I'll redraw.

I received free Char Crust dry rub seasoning for review purposes but received no other compensation for this post. All opinions are honest and my own.

This giveaway was listed at http://www.online-sweepstakes.com/