I know this is shocking- I’m actually sharing a meat recipe, a Honey Mustard Chicken recipe. In theory you can also use Quorn Chick’n – their meatfree “Chicken” cutlets or fillets for instance, you don’t have to necessarily use real chicken. Honey Mustard chicken is one of those flavors that is very classic and natural, and I think the spicy sharp flavors are a great counter when eating something rich and creamy also on your plate, which was the case here.

In this case I had 2 guests over that I could actually share this with, so I pulled out the chicken breasts from the freezer and made these to go with the recipe I recently shared, 3 cheese Macaroni and Cheese casserole w broccoli and sweet pugliese topping from the cookbook Melt: The Art of Macaroni and Cheese. I met one of the authors, Stephanie Stiavetti, when she was at Cheese Bar promoting the book release- you can see my blog post from that book release event here. None of these are sponsored posts- I just like cheese, I like Mac and Cheese, so no surprise I love the Melt cookbook.

The original recipe for the 3 cheese Macaroni and Cheese you see alongside this dish (which I covered in this blog entry last week) called for using pancetta. However, since F was going to eat this too, I had to omit it, as there really is not a good substitute for pancetta for a vegetarian. For my guests though, I decided to add having some roughly cut/shredded honey mustard chicken on the side as a mustardy, cleansing counter to the melty creamy rich mac and cheese and make it more of a meal.

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or you can use 4 small ones- my chicken breasts that I had were huge, and easily fed 3 of us with leftovers so was probably 4 breasts worth!)
• 1/2 cup mustard – many recipes call for Dijon Mustard, but I used spicy brown mustard to make it even more mustardy
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar – you can also use other kind of vinegar such as rice vinegar
• Salt & pepper

1. In a small bowl, mix together mustard, syrup, and vinegar.
2. Place cleaned chicken breasts into 9×13 greased baking dish. Season with salt & lots of pepper (I probably used about 1/2 tablespoon of each- make sure you season both sides!). Pour mustard mixture over chicken. Make sure each breast is coated. I then let it marinate for an hour or so.
   
3. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Bake your chicken breasts, with the mustard sauce, for about 30-40 minutes.
4. Let rest for 5 minutes or so, and then roughly cut/shred before serving.

And there you go, so easy!

 

What’s your favorite way to have chicken? Do you like honey mustard? And did you also know that in Germany they have mustard soup???