Balsamic Pecan Crusted Chicken

Preheat oven to 425 degrees (F).

Mix together chopped pecans and parmesan cheese in a shallow bowl, set aside.

Spray a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray. Beat the eggs with a fork or whisk in a separate shallow bowl, set aside.

Slice the chicken breasts lengthwise, so that you end up with 6 thinner chicken breasts.

Next, set up your breading station (learned this from working at Chik-fil-A. Wow.) In a row, in this order, place the raw chicken, the beaten eggs, the pecan mixture, and the greased baking dish. Then do your breading. With a fork, pick up one breast, dip it in the egg, then let the excess egg drip off. Next, press the chicken into the pecans, flipping it over and pressing it down again to make sure it gets pretty well covered. Then place the chicken in the baking dish and repeat with all the other chicken breast pieces. Once all the chicken is arranged in the baking dish, sprinkle the remaining pecan mixture over the top of the chicken and press it down with a fork. Next, spray the top with a little more cooking spray, and bake for about 15 minutes or until it’s just cooked through. Then, after 15 minutes, turn on the broiler for a minute or two to get the pecans nice and crispy. (Watch closely so it doesn’t burn!)

*A note on marinated chicken: When I buy chicken breast, I take it home and immediately put the breasts in groups of 3 in freezer bags, fill the bags with sauce or dressing, and freeze them until I’m ready to cook them. I’ll use anything from vinaigrette to teriyaki sauce to barbeque sauce. It creates easy meal planning– if you already have something marinating in your freezer, all you have to do is thaw it and cook it without thinking about it.
*Confession: I had to look how up to spell vinaigrette. Yikes.