Mustard-Baked Chicken with a Pretzel Crust

Another one of the "April Fools" 5 ingredient wonder recipes from Food & Wine (below is how I did the recipe). The biggest trick is the pretzel crushing; I ran mine through my food processor but the Snyder's sourdough pretzels were just so heavy and dense that afterward I still had to run them through my old-school nut grinder to get the right consistency. If the chunks are too big, they'll never stick, but you don't want pretzel dust! I recommend giving them a blitz in the FP to break them up, then pound with a rolling pin or use a nut grinder to get the pieces smaller without obliterating them.

Also, if you make the mustard sauce ahead of time half the work is done and you can let the chicken marinate in it. If you don't get a chance to do that, just let the chicken breasts brine while you prep the rest of the recipe. I thought the mustard mix was too liquid, so I recommend blending without the water, and then adding as necessary.

Also, I loved the whole grain mustard as a dredge with the pretzels, but I loved using my standard honey mustard dressing (5 tbs honey, 3 tbs Dijon, 2 tbs rice wine or apple cider vinegar) as a dipping sauce so I made that and had both on the table!

Mustard-Baked Chicken with a Pretzel Crust
(Serves 6)

1/2 lb hard, sourdough pretzels, crushed
1/2 c canola oil
1/2 c whole-grain mustard
2 tbs Dijon
1/4 c water (add only as necessary)
3 tbs red wine vinegar

Kosher salt
freshly ground pepper
6 chicken breast halves

Preheat the oven to 400.

1) In a food processor pulse the oil, mustards and vinegar. Add water as needed, season with salt and pepper.

2) Reserve half the dressing for dipping, and coat the chicken breasts in the other half.

3) Dredge the mustard-coated chicken in the pretzel crumbs and transfer to a rack set over a baking sheet.

4) Bake the chicken int eh upper third of the oven for 25 minutes. You can slice and serve or just plate the individual chicken breasts.