Pretzel Chicken and a John Daly

I saw a blog article discussing a killer chicken dish which involved pretzels.  Yup, pretzels.  The dish is served at an NYC restaurant called City Bakery and has a loyal following.  To make the dish work, you must buy thick, hard, sourdough pretzels.  I found large pretzel bites and thought they worked fine.  The end result was a nicely flavored chicken with a perfectly crunchy shell.  I did find that even though the pretzels I used had salt, most of it was lost in the blender, so you may find that you need to add a touch of salt to the finished chicken to maximize the flavor.

The kids loved this meal and so did we.  We'll definitely make it again!

The chopped pretzels ready for chicken...

The mustard sauce...

And the cocktail to go with dinner on a hot, sunny day...  An 'Arnold Palmer' (half ice tea/half lemonade), but the grown up version...using sweet tea vodka and lemonade!  This is technically called a 'John Daly'. Yummmmm.  This is a sweet drink, but you can play around with the vodka/lemonade ratio and can also add a splash of club soda to help cut the sugar.  Oh, and random thought... A Shandy is lemonade and beer - also a good summer drink but not something you'll drink all night.

Pretzel Chicken, courtesy of City Bakery in NYC and Food & Wine Magazine
1/2 lb hard pretzels, coarsely crushed (4 cups)

1/2 c. canola oil
1/2 c. whole-grain mustard
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1/4 c. water
3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
Salt and freshly ground pepper
6 large skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

Preheat the oven to 400°. In a food processor, pulse the pretzels until coarsely ground; you should have coarse chunks and fine crumbs. Transfer to a large, shallow bowl.

Wipe out the food processor. Add the oil, whole-grain and Dijon mustards, water and vinegar and process until smooth. Season the dressing with salt and pepper.

Pour half of the dressing into a large shallow bowl, add the chicken breasts and turn to coat. Dredge the chicken in the pretzel crumbs and transfer to a rack set over a rimmed baking sheet. Bake in the upper third of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until cooked through. Slice the chicken and serve warm or at room temperature with the remaining mustard dressing.