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These panko and pecan crusted chicken breasts are one delicious bite full of flavor and crunch. Served with a honey mustard dipping sauce, they are oven baked for maximum crunch.
Ingredients & substitutions
- Chicken breasts: Use skinless and boneless chicken breasts for this recipe. Cut them into smaller bites or use chicken tenders.
- Greek yogurt: The chicken breasts are coated in the yogurt. This helps to get the crusting to stick, but the acid in it also helps to make the breasts tender and juicy.
- Dijon mustard: Dijon mustard is mixed in with the yogurt and adds a subtle tang to the chicken. You can use yellow mustard for a milder flavor.
- Honey: Honey adds a nice hint of sweetness and helps to balance out the dijon mustard. Use a natural honey for the best flavor. Maple syrup would also work as a good substitute.
- Pecans: The chicken is coated is finely chopped pecans. They add a lovely nutty flavor and crunchy texture. This recipe would also work with other nuts like walnuts or almonds.
- Breadcrumbs: Use panko breadcrumbs for the crunchiest texture, but regular breadcrumbs work well too!
- Spices: Salt, garlic powder, paprika and black pepper.
How to make pecan crusted chicken
- Mix together the yogurt, Dijon mustard and honey.
- Coat the chicken in a yogurt mix and let marinate.
- Toss together the pecans, breadcrumbs and seasonings.
- Scrape off excess marinade from the chicken breasts and coat in the pecan mix.
- Place the chicken on a lined baking sheet and spray with oil.
- Bake until cooked through and browned. Serve with a honey mustard dip.
Tips for making the recipe
- Don’t skip the marinate step. Marinating the chicken for at least 15 minutes or overnight helps to tenderize it and enhance the flavor.
- Pound your chicken breasts if they are thick. They should be about ½ inch thick. If your chicken breasts are large, you can also cut them in half to ensure they cook through fully.
- Chop the pecans into fairly small pieces. If they are too large they may fall off of the chicken. Quickly break them down by pulsing in a food processor.
- Use an instant read thermometer to check that the chicken is fully cooked through. It should register at 165F in the thickest part of the breast. If the pecan crust is browning too quickly, you can cover them loosely with foil.
Frequently asked questions
The yogurt marinade gets chicken breasts really nice and tender and they don’t dry out. You can easily make this pecan crusted chicken with chicken tenders too, and serve them as a dip, and the recipe will also work well with boneless skinless chicken thighs. Just be aware that the cooking times will vary.
The chicken can be marinated overnight, and once crusted, you can keep the breasts covered in the fridge for a day. Once cooked, leftovers will keep well for up to 4 days and can be reheated at 350F for 15 minutes until warmed through.
This pecan crusted chicken is really delicious served with the simple honey mustard yogurt sauce, and it’s perfect to serve with salad, vegetable and potato sides. Try it with:
Baked Fries
Roasted Cabbage
Air Fryer Sweet Potato Fries
Green Beans
This pecan crusted chicken is one delicious and easy recipe, and is sure to get you out of your chicken dinner rut! Simple ingredients, but packed full of flavor and texture, every bite is so tasty!
More chicken recipes:
- Breaded Air Fried Chicken
- Air Fryer Chicken Parmesan
- Rosemary Lemon Roasted Whole Chicken
- Sweet Browned Butter Chicken
- Spatchcock Chicken
- Pesto Chicken
- Baked Chicken Tacos
- Skillet Cilantro Chicken
If you try this healthy-ish feel good Pecan Crusted Chicken recipe or any other recipe on Feel Good Foodie, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave a comment below! It helps others who are thinking of making the recipe. We would love to hear about your experience making it. And if you snapped some shots, share it on Instagram so we can repost on Stories!
Pecan Crusted Chicken
Ingredients
- Cooking spray
- ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons Greek yogurt divided
- ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard divided
- 4 tablespoons honey divided
- 1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breast about ½ inch thick
- 1 ½ cups pecans finely chopped
- 1 ½ cup panko breadcrumbs
- 2 teaspoons Kosher salt plus more to taste
- 1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon black pepper plus more to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and coat with nonstick spray.
- In a large bowl, mix ½ cup yogurt, ¼ cup Dijon, and 2 tablespoons honey. Add chicken and let sit at least 15 minutes or up to overnight.
- In a shallow dish toss together pecans, breadcrumbs, kosher salt, garlic powder, smoked paprika, and black pepper.
- Remove chicken from yogurt mixture, scraping off excess marinade and add to shallow bowl with pecan mixture. Press firmly to adhere pecan mixture, turn breast over and repeat so all sides of the chicken are completely covered.
- Transfer coated chicken to prepared baking sheet and repeat process with remaining pieces of chicken. Add remaining pecan mixture to top of chicken and press down even. Coat with cooking spray.
- Bake chicken in oven until cooked through, flipping halfway through, about 20-25 minutes total.
- Meanwhile, in a small mixing bowl stir together remaining 2 tablespoons Greek yogurt, remaining 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard, and remaining 2 tablespoons honey. Season to taste.
- Serve chicken with honey mustard sauce.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information provided is an estimate. It will vary based on cooking method and specific ingredients used.
is there a substitute for the mustard? my boys don’t like mustard and i’m afraid they would taste it. thank you
You can just leave it out! The flavor will still be great without it.
I tried your recipe yesterday for the first time. It was delicious! My family loved it. I will definitely be making it on a regular basis. Thank you for sharing your recipe!
Yay! I’m so happy you and your family loved the recipe, Angela! You’re so welcome!!
YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMY and just in time for my
sister’s birthday
Thank you!!!!!
Aww, so sweet of you to cook for your sister’s birthday! I’m so glad you liked the recipe and hope you enjoyed your meal together!!
Is the 1.5 cups of pecans measure before or after they’re chopped?
Before!
Thank you! I’ve made this twice before, and my husband and I both love it. Great way to use some of the many pounds of nuts from our pecan tree each Fall. However, I’m getting pretty old and forget things – lol. I will put it in my recipe notes now so (hopefully) I don’t forget again. This is a really great recipe!
Great recipe
Thank you!!
This was delicious! I made it exactly as written. Will be making it again for company soon!
Yay! I’m sure your guests will love it, too!
Absolutely delicious! Our local restaurant serves something similar but they closed down and we missed our favorite! The only thing I substituted was the dipping sauce, I served a melted blackberry jam topping on it like our restaurant. A five star rating for sure to you for this recipe!
Oo I LOVE the idea of the blackberry jam, that sounds so good!
Did this tonight, my husband is a picky eater and even he ate it up. Will definitely make this again but I need to marinate the chicken for a few hours next time.
Awesome! So glad to hear it!
Oh, wow! This was really delicious! I had to use sour cream (no yogurt), but other than that, followed the recipe to a ‘T’, using half the amount of everything, since we only needed two servings. I am always looking for ways to use pecans, since we get 10 pounds from our tree annually. So good; tender inside, with the crunchy outside coating. It’s a keeper for sure!
Yay! So glad you enjoyed!
Was surprised how moist and crunchy this came out. Next time I will marinate it even longer. Used cutlets – not tenders. Tenders would be even better !
Oh I love that idea!
Those chicken are so delicious!!! I had to use coconut yogurt that I had in fridge….. 😂😂 Hubby LOVED it! He had chicken legs. I had tenders. So Yummy!
Thank you so much! I am so glad you guys enjoyed them!
Excellent recipe, only comment was it was “wetter” than I would like, not crispy. Any suggestions? I used olive oil spray rather than cooking spray. Still very yummy. Served on top of some Orange Rice. Very good recipe.
So glad you enjoyed it. I love the flavor of this recipe so much! The yogurt batter, compared to traditional egg batter, will give it a slightly wetter result, but it should still have a nice crisp. I recommend reducing the yogurt mixture next time. Just apply a very thin layer, and that should help!
Excellent recipe! Will make this again!
Thank you so much! I am so happy you liked it! I just put out a recipe for Almond Crusted Chicken that I’d love for you to try!
I absolutely love love love this recipe, thank you for sharing! This is my second time making it at the request of my husband and daughter!
I do have a slight (very slight) issue and that’s the bottom of the chicken. It seems to come out a little more wet than I’d like?
Any recommendations for that? Maybe I’m not scraping enough of the yogurt mixture off, maybe use a perforated pan or finishing on the the stove top?
Thank you so much! Are you making sure to flip half way through? If you’ve already tried that, you can also try baking it on a wired rack on a baking sheet to avoid the bottom being wet.
This is probably one of my favorite recipes. I absolutely love the seasoning blend of the pecans, bread crumbs and the smoked paprika. It is the best mix. I have yet to make a recipe from your site that I was unhappy with. Everything on here is so delicious. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much! That is perfect. You’re welcome!
Absolutely amazing and so easy! My husband said he could eat this every day!
Thank you so much! I love that!
One of my favourite healthy chicken dinners!! Pecans added amaaazing flavour. Made this for my brother and my friend, they both loved it!
I’m so glad you all loved the recipe! Thank you!
This was another delicious recipe! I cut down on the Honey (1 T) since I’m trying to watch my sugars and the sauce was perfect! I was surprised how the Pecans added such a nice flavor. The Panko mixture on the chicken didnt turn out as crispy as the photo, probably because I didn’t remove most of the Yogurt mixture after marinating as suggested. Still tasty!
Thank you so much! So glad you enjoyed it!!
I loved this recipe! Probably the best chicken I’ve ever made. The dipping sauce was so good I made extra. I let my chicken marinate overnight and it was so perfect I think it helped it stay juicy. I don’t have a food processor so I used closer to 2 cups of walnuts and just smashed them up best I could. I think they would have been better in a bit smaller pieces so if you have a food processor it’s worth using.
I used leftover chicken in a salad and used the dipping sauce as the dressing. YUM!
Wow, thank you so much! That makes me so happy to hear!
Yesterday I tried your pecan crusted chicken recipe. Wow it was divine! So healthy and delicious. It was soo good that I couldn’t wait to take some pics. Thanx✌️🥰
Thank you! That’s amazing to hear!
I made this with regular plain yogurt and just seasoned Italian breadcrumbs because that’s what I had. Marinated over night. Came out so good, juicy, flavorful. Thanks Yumna!
Love the sound of that! You’re so welcome!
I made this for dinner and it was SO good. Probably one of my favorite chicken dinners. I let the chicken marinade overnight and I think that helped with the flavor like the recipe called for. I will 100% be making this again and again. The pecan crust made it sweet salty and crunchy. So yummy
Yay!! That’s amazing to hear. Hope you continue to enjoy!