Honey Mustard Pretzel Chicken

I made this twice in one week - that's how amazing it is! The combo of pretzels & panko gets super crispy, sticks to the chicken really well, and the sauce.... omg, the sauce. Delicious on its own. This is a must-make dish!

1 c Panko crumbs
1 c pretzel crumbs (I used sourdough pretzels)
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
½ c Dijon mustard
⅓ c honey
¼ c water
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
salt/black pepper
1 + ½ pounds boneless chicken breasts (I used thin sliced breasts)
½ c flour

Preheat the oven to 400° F. Place a baking rack on top of a cookie sheet lined with foil. Spray with olive oil.

In a food processor pulse the pretzels until coarsely ground (small crumbs with some small pretzel pieces) then add them to a medium bowl and mix with the panko crumbs. Wipe the crumbs out of the food processor.

Add the oil, mustard, honey, water and vinegar to the food processor and pulse until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Taste and adjust the flavor to suit your own tastes by adding more mustard or honey.

Pound the chicken breasts out to an even thickness using a mallet. (I didn't do this because I bought thinly sliced!) Season well with salt and pepper.

Set up a dredging station:

Pour half of the dressing into a large shallow bowl or dish, put the flour on a large plate and add half the pretzel mixture to a large, shallow bowl or dish (add the remaining half pretzel crumbs to the dish as needed).

Working one at a time and using tongs dredge the chicken in the flour then into the dressing allowing excess to drip off then into the pretzel crumbs patting them on if needed. Place on greased cooking rack. Bake 16 - 25 minutes depending on their thickness/size or until cooked through. Mine were perfect at 20 minutes. Let the chicken sit 5 minutes before serving with the remaining honey mustard dressing.

Original recipe found here.

Raspberry Soufflé with Chocolate Center (low calorie!)

First of all, each souffle only has about 75 calories. How is that possible?! Well, I guess it's basically just raspberries, egg whites, and sugar substitute. Oh, and a little bit delicious, melty dark chocolate.

Apparently now that I get and know how to make a soufflé, I'm going to be trying out other low calorie flavors too. If you haven't checked out the the amazing chocolate soufflés, you'll want to do that now probably.

Makes 3 soufflés

1/2 c fresh raspberries
2 1/2 tbsp granulated sugar substitute*
2 egg whites
1/2 tsp butter
1/2 oz dark chocolate, chopped


Preheat oven to 400 degrees with a rack in the center.

Wash and dry your raspberries - make sure they get pretty dry - you don't need the extra moisture. Puree the raspberries and press through a fine sieve to get all of the seeds out. I have a sieve like this that I use all. the. time. Mostly as a colander. Anyway, just dump the pureed raspberries into the sieve holding it over a bowl. I used a spoon and just kind of pressed it through until I just had seeds left in the sieve. Very easy!

Add 1 tbsp granulated sugar substitute and set aside. Beat egg whites (I use an electric hand mixer whisk) until thickened and start sprinkling the remaining sugar substitute (1.5 tbsp) into them until all of it has been added and you have stiff glossy peaks. If you need to watch a video about what "beating to stiff peaks" means like I did the first time I made souffles, click here.

Grease 3 small ramekins with butter. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the raspberry puree very gently. Once mixed, fold the raspberry puree mixture back into the remaining egg whites and fold again until there are no streaks of pink left. Gently scoop some souffle mixture into the ramekins until half full. Divide the chocolate between the ramekins and then fill to the top with souffle mixture. Place ramekins on a cookie sheet with at least a few inches between them and put on the center rack in the oven. Bake for 9-11 minutes until golden brown and puffed up. Serve immediately and ENJOY!!

Notes
* When the recipe calls for granulated sugar substitute it refers to one that measures cup for cup like sugar. If you are using a more concentrated sweetener, then use my measurement as though it were sugar and use whatever the equivalent is of your brand of sweetener. For example, if you are using Truvia, it would be 1.25 tsp per 1 TBL of sugar - so you would need 6.25 tsp for this recipe. You can find conversion charts for pretty much every sweetener out there online by going to your brand's website.

Original recipe found here.

Roasted Sweet Chili Brussels Sprouts

I could dip almost anything in Thai sweet chili sauce. This is a super simple, but delicious recipe! This was eaten as a side, but I could have just eaten a huge bowl of these...

1 lb Brussels sprouts, stem trimmed and halved
olive oil spray
1 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp sweet chili sauce

Heat the oven to 400F. On a baking sheet, Spray the Brussels sprouts with olive oil to coat evenly. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes, tossing them halfway so they cook evenly. Remove Brussels sprouts from the oven and turn on oven broiler to high, with the oven rack positioned in the top third of the oven.

In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients and pour over the Brussels sprouts, tossing to coat evenly. Broil the Brussels sprouts for 5 minutes or until the sugar in the chili sauce is bubbling and caramelizing. Watch them carefully so they don't burn! Remove from the oven and serve immediately.

Original recipe found here.