Pretzel Chicken with Sweet & Sour Sauce

 

I've led a very sheltered and deprived life when it comes to working with frying chicken. Baked yes, Grilled, yes, anything that requires browning and light frying over the stove top was a big no no for me. Why I'm not sure. One of those cooking quirks I'm sure I picked up out of culinary fear. But when I saw this recipe by the very talented Joelen at What's Cooking, Chicago? I had a feeling I would have to get over it. And I am so glad I did. This had to have been the most tender chicken I've had in awhile and that's saying an awful lot as I have a tendency to overcook meat most of the time. 

I made a few minor changes to to the recipe but this genius for the simplicity and tastiness belongs to Joelen. If you haven't come across her website yet, you're missing out.  Here is her adapted recipe below. I was all set to make what was a yummy sounding very easy honey mustard sauce only to realize I didn't have honey in the house so I ended up going for convenience with a bottled sweet and sour sauce I had on hand. I also did not sprinkle the chicken with garlic but used a garlic infused olive oil instead. 

Perfection all around. Easy enough to make even for the frying impaired. 

Pretzel Chicken with Honey Mustard Sauce
recipe inspired by That's My Home (Revision by Joelen at What's Cooking Chicago)
yields 4 servings

1 egg
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup crushed or processed pretzels*
oil for sauteing
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (6 ounces each)
salt and ground pepper to taste
garlic powder to taste

* The pretzels can actually be any hard pretzel - thin sticks, standard pretzel shapes, pretzel rods, etc. Place them in a food processor and process until you get the consistency of graham cracker crumbs. If you want more texture for your chicken coating, pulse the pretzels down to coarse crumbs instead.


In a shallow dish, whisk the egg with the 1 tablespoon of water.

In another shallow dish, place the flour.
In a shallow dish, place the crushed/processed pretzels.

Heat a skillet over medium low heat with the 1/4 olive oil.

While oil is heating, season both sides of the chicken breasts with salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste. Dredge the seasoned chicken breast in flour and shake off excess. Dip the chicken breast in the egg wash and then press it into the crushed pretzels to cover all sides. When oil is hot, carefully place the crusted chicken breasts in the hot oil and fry until browned on both sides, about 5 -7 minutes, depending on the thickness of your chicken. Serve hot.