Recipe: Pretzel-Parmesan crusted chicken

This is a really simple dish to make. Or I could be delusional about that as I’ve made similar types of dishes before so I know the process. This is for a serving size of two. Mainly because I live alone and I don’t feel like frying up more than will be enough for immediate dinner and one leftover dinner at a time.

Pretzel-Parmesan crust mixture:

• 1 1/2 cups of whole pretzels – this is approximate as I used two big handfuls
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese – again approximate

Blend together in a food processor until it’s mostly small crumbs with some chunkier pieces of pretzel throughout.

Ingredients for chicken:

• 1 fat boneless, skinless chicken breast, butterflied in half so you actually have two pieces
• 1 egg
• 1 Tb or so of skim milk
• 1/3 cup of pretzel-parmesan crust mixture
• Salt & pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup or so of canola or your favorite frying oil

Materials:

• Skillet or electric fry pan for cooking
• tenderizing mallet or sturdy whacking implement (I used a can of beans)
• 1 qt. plastic baggie
• bowl for egg mixture
• bowl for crust mixture

Heat oil in skillet or fry pan to about 350 degrees. You don’t need the oil to be deep, maybe an 1/8″ or so. Whisk together egg and milk in one bowl for dipping. Put crust mixture and salt & pepper to taste in the other bowl. Take one half of the butterflied chicken breast and place it in the baggie. Whack it until it’s about a 1/4″ thin.

The chicken in the above picture is before it was whacked, so you want to go thinner. Once both pieces of chicken have been tenderized, dip them into the crust mixture to get a thin layer on them. Then dip them into the egg mixture and thoroughly coat the chicken. Take the chicken out and place it back into the crust mixture. This is where you will get a thick crust. The oil should now be hot, so lay the chicken flat in the pan and cook the chicken about 3-4 minutes on each side until the crust is golden brown.

Serve with green beans if you were intelligent enough to cook those ahead of time according to directions unlike myself. I usually save one of the pieces for dinner the next day and reheat in the microwave for about 1 1/2 minutes.