Honey Mustard Pretzel Chicken

I never thought I would use a recipe that would require me to vacuum my kitchen counter.  Pretzels, honey mustard, chicken; it started out looking like the perfect food combination.  One step in and I had a disaster on hands.  Thankfully, Brenna was sleeping upstairs after a long morning of torture involving a trip outside on her leash.  If she had been downstairs, there would have been little paw prints in pretzel dust scattered around the entire kitchen.

I combined two recipes to come up with this recipe, the original from Food & Wine, and the adapted version from Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice.  The original recipe called for four cups of pretzel crumbs, which comes out to be an entire sixteen ounce bag of pretzels, which is double the amount you will need for three boneless chicken breasts.  With so much sodium already going on in the pretzel crumbs and mustard sauce, I also decided to leave out the process of putting salt and pepper on the chicken breasts before dredging.  Since I did go ahead and pulverize the entire bag of Utz Sourdough Specials I bought especially for this recipe, I now have enough pretzel crumbs to make this recipe again and not wreck my kitchen a second time.

I was a little worried when this chicken came out of the oven, it looked very dry and unexciting.  However, once you put the reserved honey mustard on top, it transforms it into pretty much the most amazing chicken you’ve ever tasted.  I don’t think I’ve ever had chicken come out of the oven so perfectly moist before.  I will be making this recipe again in the near future.  Good thing I have all those pretzel crumbs leftover.

It’s time to talk about honey.  According to Food Safety News, “More than three-fourths of the honey sold in the U.S. grocery stores isn’t exactly what the bees produce.  Testing results show that the pollen frequently has been filtered out of the products labeled as honey.”  Regular exposure to the pollens you are allergic to may help the body to build up a tolerance or immunity against seasonal allergies.  Try to buy your local honey from a location as near to your home as possible.  Not only will you be supporting your local beekeepers, you will also be helping to improve your local garden and farm crops.  The Beekeepers Association of Northern Virginia has a wonderful directory of local honey sellers.  I typically buy my every-day use honey at Frying Pan Park’s Country Store.  I do experiment every once and awhile by buying honey while on vacation, just to try something new as well as support the area I am visiting.  For example, in this recipe I used Lehua-Wildflower Honey, which I picked up on our recent trip to Oahu.

HONEY MUSTARD PRETZEL CHICKEN

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups Pretzel Crumbs (1/2 of a 16 oz. Bag of Utz Sourdough Specials)
• 1/2 Cup Olive Oil
• 1/2 Cup Dijon Mustard
• 1/3 Cup Honey (Clover or Orange Blossom)
• 1/4 Cup Water
• 3 Tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• 1 1/2 Pounds Boneless Chicken Breasts Cut into Tenders of Even Thickness (3 Boneless Chicken Breasts)
• 1/2 Cup All-Purpose Flour

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cover a baking sheet with tin-foil and spray with cooking spray.  (You can use a non-stick baking sheet without tin-foil, but you’ll still have a mess to clean up.)
3. Coarsely grind the pretzels in a food processor.
4. Clean up the ungodly mess of pretzel dust that is now completely covering your kitchen counter and floor.
5. Wipe the crumbs out of the food processor.
6. Combine olive oil, dijon mustard, honey, water, red wine vinegar, and black pepper in food processor and pulse until well combined.
7. Pour half of the dressing into a shallow bowl for dredging.  (The other half will be used as a sauce for the finished chicken.)
8. Place pretzel crumbs in a shallow bowl.
9. Place flour in a shallow bowl.
10. Dredge chicken in flour, then dressing, followed by the pretzel crumbs; placing each piece onto the baking sheet afterwards.
11. Bake 20 minutes, or until meat is cooked through.  This may vary, depending on the thickness of your chicken tenders.
12. Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes before serving with reserved honey mustard mixture.

Suggestions:

• Serve this over a salad of mixed greens or spinach.
• Take your food processor outside to pulverize the pretzels into crumbs and your vacuum cleaner will thank you.

Improvements:

• Fresh herbs would really be wonderful in the honey mustard sauce.  I suggest trying parsley or chives.
• If you’re a person who likes a little spice, you might think about adding a bit of cayenne.

Brenna Sleeps through “The Great Pretzel Disaster of 2013”

Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck

-Colleen

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