This recipe really came about from just playing with some ingredients I needed to use up in my cabinet.
I was home alone one night, my fiance was working overnight and I had a chicken breast in the fridge. I knew I really didn't want grilled chicken, I had rotisserie chicken the night before last so shredded wasn't really an option either. I thought chicken tenders? No I don't really want something fried. But I do want breaded, sort of.
I was lost.
I started looking through my cabinet and saw several half used bags of different sorts of nuts and seeds that I needed to use up. (I like to keep them around to get creative with smoothie bowls and salads.)
I found some pecans that were on the verge of getting a little too hard, a half thing of sunflower kernels, and about a quarter of a container of panko. I thought, hmm. I bet that would taste good together. Why not?!
So I gave it a try. And it. was. awesome.
Try it out!
For these chicken recipe, you'll need:
Pecan Crusted Chicken Breasts
- 2 Medium Chicken Breasts, trimmed and patted dry
- 1.5 cups Pecan Bits
- ½ cup Panko Breadcrumbs
- ⅓ Cup Sunflower Kernels, chopped very small
- ¼ cup Fresh Parsley, chopped
- 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
- 1.5 teaspoon Chili Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Cayenne
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- ½ teaspoon Cumin
- ¼ teaspoon Black Pepper
- 2 Eggs
- 2 teaspoon Water
Bacon Honey Mustard Sauce
- 2 tablespoon Unsalted Butter
- ⅓ cup Low Sodium Chicken Broth
- 2 tablespoon Dijon Mustard
- 1 teaspoon Yellow Mustard
- 2 tablespoon Honey
- 1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
- ¼ cup Bacon Bits, preferably fresh bacon not the dried bacon bits
- 1 teaspoon Paprika
- Kosher Salt/Fresh Cracked Black Pepper, to taste
Make it!
Pecan Crusted Chicken:
Preheat the oven to 400°.
Combine the pecan bits, panko, chopped sunflower kernels, garlic, chili, cayenne, salt, cumin and pepper in a shallow bowl.
Combine the two eggs and 2 teaspoon of water in another small shallow bowl.
Set up a work station with both bowls, your chicken breasts, and a baking sheet with a rack on top.
Dip the chicken breast into the egg, now the nut and breadcrumb mixture (press and scoop crumb mixture over chicken several times to ensure a proper coating), transfer the chicken to the rack.
Bake the chicken breasts at 400° for 40 – 50 minutes (depending on how thick the chicken breasts are), or until they reach 165° F internal temp.
Bacon Honey Mustard Sauce:
While the chicken is baking, prepare the honey mustard sauce.
Melt the butter in a large saucepan.
Remove the pan from the heat and add the chicken broth, Dijon, honey, yellow mustard, paprika and bacon bits. Move the pan back to the heat.
Bring the sauce to a boil, add the heavy cream.
Lower the heat, let the sauce simmer for 10 minutes, season with salt and pepper.
Top the crusted chicken breasts with the honey mustard sauce.
If you try this recipe out, don’t forget to post a rating and comment!
I’d love to see your pictures on Instagram too! Tag @a_toastedcrumb!
Pecan Crusted Chicken with Bacon Honey Mustard Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 Medium Chicken Breasts trimmed and patted dry
- 1 ½ cups Pecan Bits
- ½ cup Panko Breadcrumbs
- ¼ cup Fresh Parsley chopped
- 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
- 1 ½ tsp Chili Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Cayenne
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- ½ teaspoon Cumin
- ¼ tsp Black Pepper
- 2 Eggs beaten
- 2 teaspoon Water
Bacon Honey Mustard Sauce
- 2 tablespoon Unsalted Butter
- ⅓ cup Low Sodium Chicken Broth
- 2 tablespoon Dijon Mustard
- 1 teaspoon Yellow Mustard
- 2 tablespoon Honey
- 1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
- ¼ cup Bacon Bits
- 1 teaspoon Paprika
- Kosher Salt/Fresh Cracked Black Pepper to taste
Instructions
Pecan Crusted Chicken:
- Preheat the oven to 400°.
- Combine the pecan bits, panko, chopped sunflower kernels, garlic, chili, cayenne, salt, cumin and pepper in a shallow bowl.
- Combine the two eggs and 2 teaspoon of water in another small shallow bowl.
- Set up a work station with both bowls, your chicken breasts, and a baking sheet with a rack on top.
- Dip the chicken breast into the egg, now the nut and breadcrumb mixture (press and scoop crumb mixture over chicken several times to ensure a proper coating),transfer the chicken to the rack.
- Bake the chicken breasts at 400° for 40 – 50 minutes (depending on how thick the chicken breasts are), or until they reach 165° F internal temp.
BaconHoney Mustard Sauce:
- While the chicken is baking, prepare the honey mustard sauce.
- Melt the butter in a large saucepan.
- Remove the pan from the heat and add the chicken broth, Dijon, honey, yellow mustard, paprika and bacon bits. Move the pan back to the heat.
- Bring the sauce to a boil, add the heavy cream.
- Lower the heat, let the sauce simmer for 10 minutes, season with salt and pepper.
- Top the crusted chicken breasts with the honey mustard sauce.
