I have been craving fried chicken for the past two months. Not the KFC or Popeyes variety but homemade. Over the past couple of years I’ve seen recipes that tout “fried chicken crunch without frying” so I thought I’d try something on my own.
To make the chicken super moist I decided to brine it … surprise, surprise! Actually, it was a surprise. I did a beer brine that was absolutely incredible! The reason I say it was a surprise is that I’m known for using fruit juices, especially apple juice, for my brines. Beer added an incredible depth of flavor that worked really well with the honey mustard. Word of caution here, if you decide to use a dark beer don’t brine for more than 6 hours or so or else your meat will taste just like the beer itself. You are just trying to impart some flavor to enhance the natural flavor of the meat, not completely change the taste altogether.
When time to cook the chicken I made a homemade honey mustard sauce that I brushed on each breast, it acted as the adhesive for the bread crumbs. For extra crunch I decided to use panko bread crumbs instead of regular bread crumbs that are ground really small. The end result was absolutely fabulous! Try it, you won’t be sorry.
- 2 light colored beers – I used Heineken
- ½ cup kosher salt
- ½ cup honey
- 2 large chicken breasts, bone-in
- 5 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 3 tbsp honey
- 2 cups panko bread crumbs
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp pepper
- At least 6-8 hours before cooking, mix together beer, kosher salt, and honey until well combined. In a large enough dish, put in chicken breasts and beer brine making sure chicken is completely covered and submerged.
- When ready to start cooking, preheat oven to 375º F and put panko bread crumbs, salt, and pepper in a dish you can use for dredging.
- In a small bowl, mix together Dijon mustard and honey until well incorporated.
- Take chicken out of brine and pat dry with paper towels.
- Using a brush spread on the honey mustard mixture on the bottoms of the chicken breasts and place those mustard side down into the bread crumb mixture making sure to evenly coat all surface area.
- Brush the other side with honey mustard mixture and turn over into the bread crumb mixtures making sure to evenly coast all surface areas.
- Once both chicken breasts are completely coated put in a roasting pan with a rack, place in the oven, and cook for 1 hour or until internal temperature is 160º F.
- Pull out of oven and let sit for 5-10 minutes while the juices redistribute throughout the meat.