Guest Post: Honey Mustard Breaded Chicken

Today I am very excited to share a wonderful guest post with you.  I have been so busy teaching that I really don't get a lot of time to cook.  However, Bri's roommate has been cooking up a storm and even invented his own recipe! He is here today as my special guest to share his new and exciting dinner with you!

Hi everybody, I'm Stephen Hayes-- Bri's roommate back in St. Louis. I've been following the cooking blog for a while now, and just recently I developed a recipe that is pretty much all my own so I thought I might share it with you all.

Every week or so, I try out a new dish for my girlfriend's parents (who live in town) to thank them for the constant stream of food, gifts, and support they send my way. Last week, I tried out a baked shrimp scampi meal that, while delicious, was so garlicy and spicy that I was literally tasting and smelling it for days afterward...not the most fun experience. So, this week I decided to try something a little more mellow: baked chicken. The way I figured it, there's no way that baked chicken could go too far wrong. After looking online at everything from Weight Watchers to Paula Deen, I found a couple of recipes that I thought might be relatively tasty. One mentioned marinating the chicken beforehand, which I thought might be a great idea, and one recommended using bagel chips for a change in texture. After Frankensteining several recipes together, I developed one that I was relatively happy with, but I wanted to throw in my own personal flair as well. The recipe called for Dijon mustard, which is all well and good but I thought that there might be a better way to really amp up the flavor: honey mustard. So, I used honey mustard and mayo to soak the chicken, threw them in a batter of Corn Flakes (which I'd used with fish before), bagel chips, and a couple of spices, and baked them. Turns out, it was pretty tasty. The tartness of the lemon juice from the marinade went really well with the sweetness of the honey mustard. This recipe serves 4, but can easily work for more or less people. Enjoy!

Honey Mustard Breaded Chicken 

Serving Size: 4

Cooking Time

Preparation: 30 minutes (with minor prep required 2 hours before)

Cook: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups Corn Cereal (I used Kellogg's Corn Flakes)

1 cup Broken Bagel Chips

1 cup Skim Milk

2 Lemons (or 4 tbsp lemon juice)

1 tsp Granulated Sugar

1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper (1/4 tsp. for marinade, 1/4 tsp. for crust)

2 tsp Rosemary

2 tsp Kosher Salt

1/2 tsp Sweet Paprika

1/2 tsp Freshly Ground Black Pepper

1/2 cup Light Mayonnaise

1/2 cup Honey Mustard

1 Large Egg

4 Large Skinless Chicken Breasts (or more, depending on desired serving size)

Directions:

1. Squeeze the juice of the lemon into a medium bowl. Whisk in the milk, sugar, and cayenne until the sugar and cayenne are dissolved. Add rosemary. Pierce each chicken piece several times with a fork, add to the milk mixture, turning to coat well. Cover, and marinate in the refrigerator for 2 hours. 

2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Preferably, set a rack on a foil lined baking sheet and spray the rack generously with cooking spray. You can use just a baking sheet, but a rack helps reduce grease without sacrificing flavor.

3. Finely grind the cereal and bagel chips in a food processor (or crush with hands and/or a rolling pin if you don't have one handy). In this particular case, I didn't have bagel chips, so I put a bagel in the oven at 300 degrees for 30-40 minutes to get the same effect. Transfer crumbs to a large gallon size plastic bag. Add the salt, cayenne, paprika, and ground pepper and toss to mix thoroughly. 

Making Bagel Chips

The Breading

 4. Whisk the light mayonnaise and honey mustard together with the egg in a medium shallow bowl. Add chicken to honey mustard mix and turn to coat all the pieces evenly. 

Honey Mustard and Mayo

All Mixed Together

 5. Drop the chicken into the plastic bag, seal and shake until each piece is evenly coated. 

Chicken Breaded and in the Oven

6. Place coated pieces on the prepared rack. Spray the chicken pieces evenly with cooking spray, and bake until the coating crisps and browns and an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the pieces registers 160 degrees F, which should take roughly 32-37 minutes. Take the chicken pieces out of the oven, drizzle with honey mustard, then serve.

Yum.
Enjoy :)