Fresh honey combines with nutty pecans and the crunchy cereal to create the ultimate coating for your favorite proteins! This Honey Pecan Crusted Chicken will be your new favorite way to prepare chicken breast. Sweet, savory, and totally delicious!
Food bloggers, do you ever hit a recipe that you just CANNOT WAIT to share? Hopefully some of you can relate, cause that’s exactly how I feel about this one. I teased it earlier this month and now I finally have time to share it with you.
Recently, I’ve gotten really into using honey. I’ve always been a honey fan and we had it around a lot growing up since that’s what my mom uses in her coffee every morning (coconut milk, honey, and cinnamon…in case you were wondering!). But I had never but I had gotten away from using it when I started using sweeteners like stevia, monkfruit, and erythritol. I’ve been trying to get away from using zero calorie sweeteners however, and get back to using the REAL stuff. Honey has a TON of nutritional benefits, so including it in moderation in your diet is 100% okay.
I always try to buy honey that is 100% raw and made locally. Naturally, honey is gluten-free, GMO-free, and anti-bacterial. It’s one of the healthiest sweeteners you can use because it is minimally processed, comes from nature, and has only 1 ingredient…HONEY. I love it for stirring into tea, for drizzling on warm oatmeal, for baking, and even adding a touch of sweetness to savory recipes like the one I am sharing today.
Now that the Farmer’s Market near me has started up again, I got my hands on come local raw honey from my favorite vendor. I was immediately inspired to hit the kitchen! But I didn’t want to go the traditional route of a baked good or sweet recipe. No…I had other plans in mind.
I decided the honey would be perfect for including in a dry coating for chicken (or another protein of choice). Combining the honey with dry ingredient saved me a lot of mess and sticky fingers.
This recipe is a simple combination of nuts, gluten-free cereal, spices, and a little bit of honey that come together to take baked chicken (or whatever protein you’d like!) to the next level.
Honey Pecan Crusted Chicken
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Total Time: 30 mins
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
- Category: Main Meals
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken breast tenderloins
- ¾ cup chopped raw pecans
- ¾ cup gluten-free flaked cereal
- ¼ cup raw honey
- ⅛ tsp cayenne pepper
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450.
- Place the pecans a food processor and pulse until finely chopped (go easy — you don’t want a paste). Add the cereal, spices, and honey and pulse a few more times to combine.
- Set up two large shallow dishes in an assembly line. Beat the egg in the first dish and place the pecan/cereal mixture in the second dish. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper to hold the breaded fillets, and place at the end of the assembly line.
- Season the chicken pieces with a little salt and pepper. Working with one piece at a time: dip in the egg to coat evenly; and then dredge in the pecan/cereal mixture, pressing down to make the coating adhere. Try to use one hand for the dry breading and one hand for the wet– otherwise, your hands will end up a mess. Place the breaded chicken on the prepared baking sheet and repeat with remaining pieces.
- Place baking sheet in the oven and bake chicken for 20 minutes or until cooked through.
- Serve with honey mustard for dipping!
Crispy, crunchy outer coating with a juicy, delicious piece of chicken underneath. Perfection!
This is easily made vegetarian or VEGAN, by using pressed tofu steaks (which I tried and loved!) and a different liquid sweetener like agave or maple syrup!
I also wanted to share great dipping sauce I made to go with this dish. Combine 2 tbsp Veganaise (or mayo), 1 tbsp Dijon mustard, and 1 tbsp liquid honey. A little honey-mustard sauce that compliments the sweet and savory taste of the chicken.
This combined with my Smoky Bean Puree made for a hearty and TASTY meal. My taste buds were literally overwhelmed with all the fun tastes and textures. My kind of meal!
What’s your favorite use for honey?
How do you jazz up baked chicken?
What’s your favorite home-cooked main dish?
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41 responses to “Honey Pecan Crusted Chicken [gluten-free + dairy-free]”
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I saw these Nektar Crystals the other day in a TJ Maxx! I was fascinated by them. And I would have to say honey is in my top 5 of favorite flavors EVER! I even want to incorporate honey into my wedding. Maybe little jars of honey for favors.
Oh that would be such a fun wedding favor! I’ve seen some pretty cool flavored honeys!
This looks amaaaazing! I’m totally intrigued by the Nektar crystals as well – what a smart idea!
They really are so convenient!
oooh and now Im thinking I could drag the child in by letting her hammer the pecans with a rummer mallet!!!
YESSSS! Perfect, fun way for her to help out in the kitchen!!
THESE LOOK AMAZING, and genius with the granulated honey, because regular honey is SO annoying to measure and messy! I love this idea, wonder if Wegman’s sells these bad boys!
I’m not sure if Wegmans carries them! But you can always get some on their online store!
Actually, they just tweeted today that they are now in Wegman’s stores!
SWEET!!
Looks amazing!! I need to find these Nektar Crystals!!
If you can’t find them you can swap in brown sugar!
Honey crystals – what a great idea and they look to be really healthy! Your chicken looks so amazing, I’d love to try this recipe since it doesn’t look too difficult for me to handle lol!
It really is so easy!! You’ll be able to make it no problem!
Wow what a great idea! Honey crystals! Genius! Love the sound of your chicken dish too 🙂 #recipeoftheweek
Thank you Hayley!
I’ve never heard of honey crystals! And, your chicken dish looks pretty darned tempting – maybe I need to get my hands on some of those crystals! 🙂
If you can’t find them, feel free to substitute brown sugar!
Looks tasty. Thanks for linking up to #tastytuedays
Thanks for hosting!
Hi Kaila,
I love chicken and these recipe sounds wonderful. I bet it makes the chicken so tender and tasty. Thanks for sharing on Real Food Fridays. Twitted & Pinned.
I love this one! Pecans are and down my favorite nuts.
I love them too! So underrated!
Wow! What a unique way to cook chicken! I’ve got to try this! I’m in love with mushroom risotto but it takes too long to make regularly and I always fall back on chicken recipes so thankyou so much for adding this to my list!
Let me know how you like it!
We would just love your Honey Pecan Crusted Chicken, looks so good! Hope you are having a great week and thanks so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday.
Come Back Soon!
Miz Helen
I’ll be back this week!
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That sounds yummy! I have a recipe for pecan crusted chicken but it’s really nothing like this. I’ll have to try it. Pinned.
Thanks Joanne!! Enjoy!!
We will love your Honey Pecan Crusted Chicken! Thanks so much for sharing with us at Full Plate Thursday for the party this week. Hope you have a great week and come back to see us real soon!
Miz Helen
★★★★★
Thank you so much Helen!!
Oh that looks good! Thanks for sharing at the What’s for Dinner Party!
This just looked too good to let go – Your recipe will be featured at tomorrow’s What’s for Dinner party! Thanks for sharing it.
Thank you for the feature!! 🙂
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