Crunchy, toasted pecan chicken tenders with a side of homemade honey mustard. YES PLEASE. This pecan chicken is perfect for company and hosting dinner guests, but can also be a kid-friendly meal. Who doesn’t love chicken fingers with a delicious dipping sauce?!
It’s been a little while since I’ve brought you a new main dish recipe…and I’m SO excited to share this one with you! It’s quickly become a favorite at our house (just like these chocolate chip cookies) and I’m confident you will love this recipe as well.
This recipe does contain a couple different steps, but I’ll walk you through the process. Honestly, the recipe doesn’t take much time and the end results is SO worth the time you spent! Let’s talk a little more about this process…
How to make Pecan Chicken
Step 1: Make Honey Mustard
The honey mustard should be made first, as you will be dipping the chicken in the honey mustard before dipping in the pecans. The honey mustard is super simple and uses just THREE ingredients! Plain Greek yogurt (you could also use regular, non-Greek yogurt if you wish), Dijon mustard, and honey! That’s it. Also. I can speak from experience that this honey mustard is absolutely delicious on ALL THE THINGS. Pretzels. Carrots. As a salad dressing. As a dip for the pecan chicken. So many reasons to make this honey mustard recipe.
Step 2: Prep the Pecan Chicken
The second step is to make the pecan chicken! First up is the chicken…what kind to use? I splurged and bought the boneless skinless chicken tenders, as they are the perfect size for this recipe. However, you can also use chicken breasts and pound them out/cut them to your preferred size. You’ll then dip the raw chicken into the honey mustard, and then into the chopped pecans.
Pro tip: you absolutely can chop the pecans by hand with a chef’s knife…or you can simply put the 2 cups pecans into a food processor and blitz a couple times until chopped! Don’t process too long or you’ll begin for form a paste and eventually pecan butter. But you also don’t want huge pieces or the pecans won’t stick well! In the above photos, I was testing with two different types of pecans (finely ground and then chopped), but in further recipe testing I found this to be an unnecessary step. So just chop the pecans like the top bowl above! Make sure to use a silicone baking mat or parchment paper on your baking tray or otherwise you’ll have a huge mess to clean up.
Step 3: Bake the chicken!
You’ll need to bake the chicken at 400 degrees for approximately 25 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165 degrees. The time will vary based on how large/thick your chicken pieces are. Then, finally, it’s ready to EAT! I’d recommend making a fresh batch of the homemade honey mustard to dip the baked pecan chicken in!
As always, I’d love to hear if you try this recipe! Leave a comment on this post, or tag me (@audras_appetite) on Instagram or Facebook!
- For the chicken:
- 8 ounces (2 cups) pecans
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika (or regular paprika)
- 1 ½ lb. chicken breast or tenderloins
- Honey mustard:
- ½ cup whole fat plain Greek yogurt (you can use any fat %)
- ¼ cup Dijon mustard
- 2-4 tablespoons honey
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat, foil, or parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the yogurt, Dijon mustard, and honey.
- In a small food processor (or with a large chef's knife), chop pecans (see photo above for a visual). Then stir in salt, pepper, and paprika in the pecan mixture.
- Dip chicken in honey mustard and shake off excess.
- Then dip chicken in pecan mixture and place on baking tray.
- Bake at 400 degrees for approximately 25 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165 degrees F (use a food thermometer for food safety!).
- Enjoy!! Serve with additional honey mustard if desired. (Make sure you make a fresh batch so you aren't dipping sauce contaminated with raw chicken!).
Looks amazing!!!
Thank you!! 🙂