Pretzel crusted chicken breasts with a sweet and tangy honey mustard sauce.
Honey mustard is my favorite type of mustard especially when we’re talking chicken. They belong together like peanut butter and jelly.
The homemade honey mustard sauce is used two ways. First, to coat the chicken before dredging in the pretzel crumbs and second, as a tasty sauce.
While the chicken was cooking I was dunking pretzels into it left and right. To say it’s slightly addicting is an understatement.
I may have had to make a second batch. I’ll never tell.
Pretzel crumbs make the best crispy coating for chicken! They work miracles on baked chicken making it so crunchy you might mistake it for fried. They form a crust that traps all the juices inside the chicken where they belong to help make it moist and tender.
You get crunchy pretzels, soft chicken and mouth-watering sauce in every single delicious bite making this an easy favorite.
Update: I tested and improved on the original recipe after some readers expressed problems with the pretzel coating. You can still find the recipe that I used here from Food & Wine if interested. Below is my updated version and what I feel is a fail-proof recipe. The pictures above are the new recipe and the one below the old.
Pretzel crusted chicken breasts with a sweet and tangy honey mustard sauce.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400° F. Lightly grease with oil a large, non-stick baking sheet or roasting pan. If you don't have a non-stick pan line a regular pan with parchment and lightly grease with oil.
- In a large skillet over medium heat toast the panko crumbs until lightly golden, stirring constantly. Remove from the pan and allow to cool.
- In a food processor pulse the pretzels until coarsely ground (small crumbs with some small pretzel pieces) then add them to a medium bowl and mix with the panko crumbs. Wipe the crumbs out of the food processor.
- Add the oil, mustard, honey, water and vinegar to the food processor and pulse until smooth.
- Season with salt and pepper. Taste and adjust the flavor to suit your own tastes by adding more mustard or honey.
- Pound the chicken breasts out to an even thickness using a mallet. Season well with salt and pepper.
- Pour half of the dressing into a large shallow bowl or dish, put the flour on a large plate and add half the pretzel mixture to a large, shallow bowl or dish (add the remaining half pretzel crumbs to the dish as needed).
- Working one at a time and using tongs dredge the chicken in the flour then into the dressing allowing excess to drip off then into the pretzel crumbs patting them on if needed. Place on greased baking sheet.
- Bake 16 - 25 minutes depending on their thickness/size or until cooked through (internal temperature 165 - 174 degrees F.).
- Let the chicken sit 5 minutes before serving with the remaining honey mustard dressing.
Notes
*I used these pretzels but you can also use the harder sourdough type.
Adapted from Food & Wine
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It looks delicious!!! I’m planning on making it tonight but What would be some great sides to go with it.
Something not too fancy because this will steal the show anyway! Maybe string beans, brussels sprouts, some sauteed spinach or a nice salad?
I tried this tonight. While the flavor was great, the pretzels somehow turned stale in the oven and didn’t have that crunch I was looking for. Next time I think I’ll use almonds instead. The mustard sauce is a keeper though.
I really want to make this but dont have a wire rack to put the chicken on.. Can I just put them in the pan? I guess the bottom would probably get soggy though.
Hi Katie! You can use a baking pan! Lightly grease it or use parchment so it doesn’t stick. It should still crisp up. I’d love to hear how it turns out!
Trying this tonight with ranch dressing mix and Snyder’s jalapeno pretzels! Can’t wait!
This recipe looks fantastic! My boyfriend tried to make it for me this weekend and it did not turn out near as beautiful as yours, but it still tasted great! I wrote about it on my blog if you’d like to see how not pretty it turned out haha. Thanks for such a great recipe!
Katie
Katie recently posted..Honey mustard pretzel chicken