This pretzel crusted chicken makes a flavorful and fast weeknight dinner! My recipe is kid-friendly, can be baked or pan fried, and includes an irresistible honey mustard sauce. Recipe includes a how-to video!
An Easy, Flavorful Weeknight Dinner
With a crispy-crunchy exterior and a tender juicy center, my pretzel crusted chicken is the flavorful, EASY weeknight chicken that the whole family will love (at least mine sure does!)! It stays nice and crispy, unlike many baked breaded chicken recipes, and it has a beautiful golden brown exterior.
This chicken is juicy, tender, and full of flavor. We’ll dip it in a honey mustard egg batter before coating in the crisp and crunchy pretzel pieces. I also include a honey mustard drizzle/dipping sauce, which really takes things to a whole new level!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Makes a quick, yet so flavorful weeknight dinner (like my creamy cajun chicken!). It feeds the whole family in roughly 30 minutes! If you need more weeknight dinner ideas, check out my weeknight dinners email series!
- Easy and kid-friendly. My kids will happily eat this meal, which makes it popular around here. It’s also easy to swap out the chicken breast for chicken tenders, which they love.
- Includes a tasty honey mustard sauce that pairs perfectly and takes things over the top.
- Crispy without any frying needed (though you can pan fry if you want; I talk more about this below).
Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to get started:
- Chicken. We use either chicken breasts or chicken tenders. Chicken tenders are nice if you plan to serve this dish to kids, since they are easier to bite into.
- Pretzels. I like the small twisted kind, and recommend you use the same. I sometimes crush my pretzels with a food processor, but I typically just use a Ziploc bag and rolling pin to keep things nice and easy.
- Honey. Necessary for a honey mustard sauce, but we also add this to the egg dip that we use to help the crushed pretzels adhere.
- Dijon mustard. Similar to the honey, we will add this to our sauce and our egg mixture (it adds so much flavor!). Don’t use regular yellow mustard; you want the deeper and more sophisticated flavor of Dijon for best results.
- Spices. Including black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and smoked paprika (a favorite from my chicken and rice soup). We’ll also add a small pinch of cayenne to the honey mustard sauce. You can skip this if you are especially sensitive to spice, but it’s such a small amount that even my kids can tolerate it.
SAM’S TIP: The finer you crush your pretzels, the more easily they’ll stick to the chicken. I like to use my hands to really coat the chicken with as many pretzel crumbs as I can and make sure there are no bald patches.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Pretzel Crusted Chicken
- Make the dipping sauce: whisk the mayonnaise, mustard, honey, vinegar, and cayenne together in a shallow dish. You can either make this before prepping the chicken (this gives the flavor more time to develop) or you can make it while the chicken is baking in the oven.
- Dredge the chicken in the flour mixture first. Make sure you evenly coat it, otherwise your egg mixture won’t stick properly.
- Dip the chicken in the egg mixture until completely coated. Make sure there’s no dry spots of flour exposed (dip it again if you need to!).
- Finally, coat the chicken in the crushed pretzels. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Drizzle the chicken with melted butter. This adds even more flavor!
- Bake until cooked through; this will take a bit longer if you use chicken breasts instead of tenders. I recommend checking your meat with a thermometer to be safe.
- Serve with honey mustard sauce, if desired. You can also use the sauce as a dip!
SAM’S TIP: I usually bake my chicken, but you can also pan fry it. Pan frying is more work and more mess, but it yields a juicier and more flavorful chicken. I include instructions for pan frying this recipe in the notes below. Note there is a bit of a learning curve when preparing the chicken this way; if you’re not careful or don’t use enough oil, you can easily burn it and end up with a smoky, blackened mess.
Frequently Asked Questions
I suppose you could, but I’m not sure how long it would need to cook. If you do try this recipe in the air fryer, let me know how it turns out for you!
I don’t see why not! You might want to adjust the seasoning in the flour mixture if you do though (and you may or may not want to use the honey mustard sauce, depending on the flavor you use). I’d love to hear what you experiment with!
Enjoy!
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Pretzel Crusted Chicken
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Servings: 2 -4 servings (see note)
Calories: 1139kcal
Ingredients
For the honey mustard sauce
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Instructions
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Preheat oven to 400F (205C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper (alternatively lightly grease with butter). Set aside.
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Make the honey mustard sauce: Whisk together the mayonnaise, honey, dijon mustard, white vinegar and cayenne pepper in a small dish. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
2 Tablespoons mayonnaise, 2 Tablespoons honey, 2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard, 1 teaspoon white vinegar, ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
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Crush pretzels: Place pretzels in a food processor and pulse until broken into fine pieces (alternatively, place the pretzels in a plastic bag and beat with a rolling pin until thoroughly crushed). Pour into a shallow dish and set aside.
3 cups (130 g) pretzels
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Prepare the flour coating: In another shallow dish, whisk together flour, salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika. Set aside.
¾ teaspoon table salt, ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper, ½ teaspoon onion powder, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon smoked paprika, ⅓ cup (42 g) all-purpose flour
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Prepare egg dip. In another shallow dish, whisk together egg, dijon mustard, and honey.
1 large egg, 1 Tablespoon dijon mustard, 1 Tablespoon honey
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Prepare the chicken: If using chicken breast, use a sharp knife to cut each breast into cutlets (cut in half lengthwise and, if needed, pound to an even thickness).
1 lb (453 g) chicken breast or chicken tenders
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Pat the chicken dry then dredge through the flour mixture until completely coated, then dip in the egg, making sure the entire piece of chicken is completely coated in egg, then finally coat with the pretzel mixture, ensuring the chicken is completely coated.
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Bake: Transfer chicken cutlet to prepared baking sheet and repeat until all chicken is coated, spacing at least 2” (5cm) apart on baking sheet. Drizzle chicken with melted butter then transfer to center rack of 400F (205C) preheated oven and bake until chicken is cooked to 165F (74C) when the center is checked with a meat thermometer (about 15-16 minutes for tenders, 16-18 for chicken breast.)
2 Tablespoons salted butter
Notes
To pan fry:
Follow instructions through step 6. Add 2-3 Tablespoons of avocado (or other neutral cooking oil) to a 10” skillet and heat over medium heat until shimmering. Add chicken to pan, allowing at least 1” of space between pieces (cook in batches if needed). Cook approximately 2-3 minutes per side, ensuring chicken is cooked through with an instant read thermometer (must read 165F/74C). Remove to a paper towel lined plate, wipe out the skillet, add new oil, and repeat until all chicken has been cooked.
Storing
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Chicken is best reheated until warmed through in a 350F oven or in the air fryer.
Servings
This recipe easily feeds my family (2 adults and 2 children) but you may want to double it if feeding 4 adults.
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 1139kcal | Carbohydrates: 141g | Protein: 67g | Fat: 34g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 10g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 263mg | Sodium: 3084mg | Potassium: 1247mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 29g | Vitamin A: 861IU | Vitamin C: 6mg | Calcium: 85mg | Iron: 8mg
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
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