Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Pecan Encrusted Chicken

I was on a walk today with a friend and we were talking about some of the meals we like to cook for dinner. Sadly, my list seemed to be very short. I think that's because my husband and I both like routine, so we don't mind having the same (or nearly the same) meals every week.
One of our favorite meals is pecan encrusted chicken - I make it almost once a week.

I don't have an exact "recipe" for the chicken because it was more an attempt at me remembering a recipe in one of my cookbooks. I remembered a vague combination of ingredients for some sort of fish/seafood dish in a cookbook I was thumbing through once and decided to try it out on some chicken since I wasn't able to re-locate the recipe (I tried - I swear!).

For the topping/chicken coating I mix approximately equal portions of flour, brown sugar and chopped pecans. The brown sugar gives the chicken a little sweetness and helps keep the chicken from drying out, and the pecans give it a good crunch.
Next I coat the chicken with the mixture and place it on a baking tray. I then cook the chicken for approximately 20 mins in a 350 degree oven (although thicker pieces of chicken may take a little longer).

I generally cut my chicken into strips that way I can get a better topping-to-chicken ratio :) I also tend to scoop any of the extra topping mixture I have left over onto the chicken because I'm not very good at getting it to stick, and that way I have as much of the topping on the chicken as possible (but you definitely don't need to do that).

So, I realize this isn't the most appetizing-looking picture,
but  it's the only picture of the pecan chicken I have.

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