Honey Mustard Pretzel Chicken & Zucchini Fritters

My first day off after night shift I usually don't feel like doing a whole lot since I get about four hours of sleep and then force myself to get up to be able to sleep later that night. However most of the time I wake up starving and in the mood to whip something easy up! I had two recipes saved, Honey Mustard Pretzel Chicken and Zucchini Fritters, and thought that these would be a good combo this past Thursday night. 

I'm always looking for a recipe to make chicken a little less boring and my mother-in-law had brought us some beautiful, huge zucchini from her garden so these were perfect. 

For the chicken, you will need:

4 cups of hard pretzels, coarsely crushed (I just used the thick pretzel rods and pulsed them in the food processor)

2 cups of Panko breadcrumbs 

1/2 cup of flour 

1/2 cup of neutral tasting olive oil

1/2 cup of Dijon mustard

1/3 cup of honey

1/4 cup of water

3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar

Coarse salt and fresh ground black pepper

1 1/2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts

First, preheat your oven to 400F and grease a large baking dish or line one with foil. You also need to heat a medium sized saute pan on the stove over medium heat. While these are heating, pulse your pretzels in the food processor until you get small crumbs with some large pretzel pieces. 

Once you pulse your pretzels, add them to a large bowl and wipe out your food processor. Add the Panko to the pan on the stove and toast the breadcrumbs until golden, being sure not to burn them. Once toasted add them to the bowl with the pretzels. 

Now you want to add the oil, mustard, honey, water, and vinegar to the food processor and pulse until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. 

Save half of your dressing in the food processor and pour the rest into another bowl. Add the flour to a small bowl as well. Dunk your chicken in the flour, then dressing, then crumbs, then set into the baking dish. A really useful tip I learned from this recipe is to use tongs when dunking!! I always used to use my fingers and get goop everywhere and I also felt like having all of that on my hands took some of the coating off of whatever I was making. I know the thought of using tongs is really not rocket science but I really had no clue! Amazing!

Once you've dunked all your chicken, bake 16-25 minutes based on your oven. While your chicken is cooking prepare your fritters.

You will need:

1 large grated zucchini (just grate it with a cheese grater)

1 large egg

1 cup of breadcrumbs

1 tablespoon of chili powder

1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese

2 tablespoons of olive oil

To start, once you have grated your zucchini, press a towel over top of it to remove all the excess water. This is very important because they won't cook as well and become soggy if you skip this step. 

Next, in a large bowl add in all of the other ingredients except the oil and stir to combine. 

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Once hot, shape your mixture into 2cm balls and place into the pan, pressing down with a spatula to flatten them a bit. Brown on each side for two minutes, then remove to a plate. 

For serving, pour your reserved honey mustard dressing over your chicken and top with diced chives. Drizzle ranch dressing over the zucchini fritters. Here is my finished product:

So delicious! Yet another thing to add to the roster of things to make regularly! I really liked the chicken recipe because the coating stuck really well to the chicken. Nothing frustrates me more when you spend an hour dunking something only to have all of the coating fall off. I believe it's the honey, so don't skip it! 

As a side note, I am seriously the messiest chef ever. But at least I have fun! Here's what my kitchen typically looks like when I'm making something: