Orange Pecan-Crusted Chicken

This oven-fried chicken is packed with flavor while remaining light on your waistline. Crispy, spicy, and citrusy. Perfect served with a spinach salad.

Nut-crusted chicken is one of my favorite ways to prepare chicken. This obsession started when I first made this recipe with my friend Brandi years ago, pre-blogging years. While unpacking, sifting through a pile of recipes long forgotten, I rediscovered this guy and it quickly was thrown onto the menu. This time I combined it with another one of my favorite chicken-cooking techniques: oven-frying. The result? Crispy, citrusy, spicy. Serve along with a spinach salad and it’s healthy dinner time!

P.S. The Weber root beer gets special mention for being one of the best root beers I have had from my Seattle root beer shopping spree. I still need to unpack all my bottles to fill in more of my root beer collection list.

One year ago: Cream Cheese and Bell Pepper Stuffed Chicken

Three years ago: Buttermilk Pecan Waffles

Four years ago: Spaghetti with Feta and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

ORANGE PECAN-CRUSTED CHICKEN

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 to 1-1/4 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded 1/4-inch thin

1/2 cup pecan halves

1/4 cup plain Panko bread crumbs

1-1/2 tsp freshly grated orange zest (I used a mandarin orange)

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground chipotle pepper

1 egg white

1 tsp water

Cooking spray

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Arrange a wire rack on a large baking sheet and coat rack with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. Place pecans, bread crumbs, orange zest, salt and ground chipotle in a food processor and pulse until the pecans are finely ground. Transfer the mixture to a shallow dish.
3. Place the egg white and water in a second shallow bowl and lightly beat. Dip the chicken into the egg then coat with the bread crumbs. Arrange on prepared rack and spray tops with cooking spray. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden and cooked through.
4. Serve immediately with spinach side salad.

Source: Adapted from Eating Well. Cooking method from my Oven-Fried Chicken & Biscuit Waffles.

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