Low Carb Shake & Bake
Equipment
- Food Processor
- Mixing bowl with lid
Ingredients
- 3.25 ounces pork rinds
- ½ cup grated canned Parmesan cheese
- ¼ cup spice rub mix
- 1 tbsp salt Adjust to taste
Instructions
- Empty bag of pork rinds into food processor and process until the pork rinds are the consistency of breadcrumbs. Dump into a bowl.
- Add parmesan cheese, spice mix and salt to the bowl
- Put the lid on the bowl and then shake until the mix is incorporated.
- Add to a ziplock bag and use as needed.
Anyone remember Shake N Bake? For the uninitiated, its a flavored breading mix that came in a bag. You would put the raw meat in the bag, shake the bag until the meat was coated, then place on a baking dish and bake said meat. That stuff was delicious.
Lower carb diets have been all the rage for a little while now. The Keto diet is an example of one of these. Because Im diabetic, I tend to lean more lower carb and barbecuing all sorts of things is inherently lower in carbs. Last year, I had a hankerin’ for fried chicken. Since fried chicken is usually breaded, I decided to try this method to see what would happen. Previous experience said no. BUT, this was a hit.
The nice thing about this recipe is that you can play around with the spice mix a bit. I normally use whatever dry rub I have around the house at the time, but you really can spice this however you want. A basic combo might be to just use garlic powder, onion powder, and pepper. You could go for a more earthy type and use some kind of herb mix that is generally packed as an italian seasoning. You could even use a curry spice and give it a more Indian flavor. There are a lot of options here.
This recipe can be done with breadcrumbs instead of the pork rinds, so if you don’t care about carbs, just use the same amount in breadcrumbs. Its actually easier to use breadcrumbs because then you dont have to crush the pork rinds. So there’s that.
Speaking of crushing the pork rinds, if you don’t have a food processor, there is an alternate method. Put them in a ziplock bag (or use the bag they gave you – just get the air out first so it doesn’t explode all over your kitchen) and get as much of the air out as possible. Then use a rolling pin or heavy bowl and crush them that way. This method works pretty well and it’ll help work out some frustration.
I intentionally left this as a single serving container, since the mix can be used on all sorts of different foods and depending on the size of the meats, the servings will change. As an estimate, i would say this probably coats 4-5 chicken thighs or 2 decently sized pork chops. I usually make twice this amount because after the first time I use it, I’m almost guaranteed to want to make something else with it.