Pecan Crusted Chicken with Honey Mustard Sauce

This was what we had today for dinner.


Since I wanted to make use of pecans and honey that my SIL gave me, I made a search for recipes using both/either of them.

Also, since I have some mustard seeds left over from making my favorite cucumber pickles, bread and butter pickles, I searched for a recipe for the honey mustard sauce.

I first made my honey mustard sauce two days ago using this recipe for Basic Coarse Mustard Recipe from cdkitchen.com, with the help of the good old blender and a pint-sized Ball jar (yes, it fits perfectly, plus it had the advantage of storing the prepared mustard in the jar itself). If not for my desire to use my honey supply, and the mustard seeds left over from my pickling, I could have just bought Dijon mustard and followed the procedure for making honey mustard sauce as directed in the cdkitchen.com's Pecan Crusted Chicken recipe. Or, maybe it is available in grocery stores (it definitely is served in KFC, McDonald's or Friendly's.)

Basic Coarse Mustard

Ingredients:
1/3 cup mustard seed
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1 clove garlic -- halved
3 tablespoons water
3 tablespoons liquid honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 pinch ground cinnamon

Directions:

Combine mustard seeds, vinegar and garlic in a small bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 36 hours.

Discard garlic. Process mixture in a food processor with water until coarse consistency. Stir in honey, salt and cinnamon.

Refrigerate in tightly sealed containers.

Among the variations, I tried

Dijonnaise Mustard: Add 1/3 cup mayonnaise

It was very very spicy. I stored that in the fridge until I was ready to make my honey mustard sauce for the chicken.

I came up today with this menu for our dinner:
Pecan Crusted Chicken with Honey Mustard Sauce
Honey Whole Wheat Loaf
Roasted Veggies and Potatoes

I started the bread in the bread machine at around 3:00 p.m. , then made my final honey mustard sauce by mixing
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp honey
2 tsp Dijonnaise honey mustard (that I prepared)

I tasted that and adjusted the amounts until it was good to my taste (not too spicy).

I rested for about 2 hours, before preparing the potatoes/veggies and chicken. And here is the recipe for the

Honey Whole Wheat Loaf

Makes One (1-1/2 pound) Loaf

1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 large egg
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons FLEISCHMANN'S Bread Machine Yeast

Directions
Add ingredients to bread machine pan in the order suggested by manufacturer. (Mine says to put all (room temperature) liquid ingredients first topped by the dry ingredients.) Select basic/white bread cycle; medium/normal color setting.

When cycle is complete, remove from pan; cool on wire rack.

I preheated the oven to 375 deg F. I washed thoroughly (with a brush) and cut 5 medium red potatoes into quarters and placed them in a bowl, then poured about 2 tbsp of olive oil and mixed to coat evenly, then sprinkled with 1/2 packet of Italian Dressing Mix. I then placed the potatoes on one side of the baking pan (would use the other half for the rest of the veggies) in the oven and let them cook while I prepared the chicken strips.

For Pecan Crusted Chicken, I revised the original recipe such that I used one packet of Italian Dressing Mix (available at Hannaford) instead of measuring the different spices called for. So, my final ingredients were:

dip:
2 eggs (room temp)
1/4 cup butter (melted and cooled to room temp)

coating:
1 cup pecans, finely chopped using chopper
1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs (I used my own)
1 packet Italian Dressing mix

2.5 pounds chicken breast cut into strips

The chicken breast strips were dipped first then coated. I arranged them on a pan lined with parchment paper. I then placed them on the higher rack in the oven (and I placed the potatoes below). I set the timer at 20 minutes (only because my chicken strips were still a bit frozen).

Meanwhile, I got half of summer squash and half of small zucchini, and cut them into wedges same size as those of potatoes, coated with the same (olive oil and 1/2 packet of Italian dressing). I placed them alongside the potatoes, and let cooke for another 5 minutes. Then I set the temp to 400 for the last 5 minutes to make a good browning on the surface of the potatoes.

Everyone enjoyed the chicken strips. My boys said the honey mustard sauce was more spicy than that in restaurants, and hubby quipped, "because this is made with real honey and real mustard." My older son used it, though, despite it being different from what he was used to. Hubby, daughter and I liked it. Younger son used ketchup. It was a very satisfying hearty and healthy meal!

Hubby's comment: "Your chicken dinner was a success! Everyone enjoyed it!"

Later tonight, as I was posting this actually, he approached me to thank me again for that wonderful meal, and asked if there were enough left over for his lunch tomorrow to take to work. I said I prepared three strips for him, then he asked whether we still had that honey mustard sauce as well, because "that was very good!"