Baked Quinoa Crusted Chicken with Peanut Sauce

For the chicken cutlets:
In a sauc pan over medium heat, combine quiona, water, and chicken broth/stock. Cook quinoa according to the instructions on the package. When done remove pan from the heat. Cool cooked quiona in room temperature and set aside.

Preheat the oven at 475 F. Lightly oil the bottom of a half sheet baking pan. Set aside.

Cut chicken cutlets into slices, about 2-3 inches thick. Season both sides of chicken with salt, pepper and garlic powder and set them on a plate. Beat eggs with 2 tablespoons of water in a small bowl. Put flour and cooked quinoa into two separate flat dishes. You should have 3 dishes with separate ingredients, in addition to the dish with the chicken.

Coat each cutlet in flour and shake excess off chicken. Then dip in egg wash. Then coat with cooked quinoa by pressing cutlet gently so that quinoa sticks and chicken is completely covered. Place it on the prepared pan. Repeat this step until all chicken cutlets are coated.

Place the pan with cutlets in preheated oven. Bake for 10 minutes. Flip chicken and bake for another 5 minutes or until cooked through. Cutlets should look golden and crisp.

Take the pan out of the oven and let the chicken cool for 5 minutes. Serve hot/warm.

For the sauce:
Put vegetable oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and granulated sugar in a small bowl and whisk until they are well combined. Stop here if you’re allergic to peanuts.

Put the peanut butter in a small dish. Loosen peanut butter with 1 tablespoon of water by lightly beating the two together with a fork. Add peanut butter to the sauce and whisk until they are well combined.

Serve chicken on top of rice or noodles, topped with sauce.

Note regarding the peanut sauce: The dressing with the first 4 ingredients can be used as a salad dressing or marinade if you are allergic to peanuts. Alternatively, you can use the peanut sauce for chicken satay or peanut noodles (shown above with soba/buckwheat noodle). It is very versatile and can be kept in the fridge for a while.