Honey Dijon Chicken Cutlets

From first through eighth grade, I attended a teeny tiny parochial school in Bedford, NY, where my class-size was 26 and birthday parties consisted of inviting your entire grade.

Claire and me in our super-cool St. Pat's uniforms circa 1994

On the first Friday of every month, we had a half day and were dismissed at lunch time. For many years, these 'First Fridays' as we called them meant one thing: a trip to McDonalds after school for lunch with our friends. My parents were pretty good about limiting our fast food consumption, so this was a HUGE deal. I'd basically start strategically planning which Happy Meal I was going to get on Monday of that week. In fact, I'm pretty sure there's still a red, plastic briefcase with my name on it lying around my parents house somewhere filled with my Happy Meal toys of childhood past (ha).

So, to make an unnecessarily long story short, I absolutely loved ordering McDonald's chicken nuggets. What made these little nuggets even BETTER was smothering them in the honey dipping sauce (do they even make that anymore?). This recipe took me back to those days, but its ten times better since there's a little dijon mixed in there!



Plus - and I know I say this often - you probably already have all these ingredients in your fridge and / or pantry!

Honey Dijon Chicken Cutlets

INGREDIENTS
Makes 2 Chicken Breasts

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 2 tablespoons dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoons honey
• 1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs
• Olive oil (for frying)

DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together your Dijon mustard, mayonnaise and honey. Set aside. 
2. Pour your breadcrumbs into a separate medium-sized bowl and set aside. 
3. Rinse your chicken breasts and pat dry. 
4. Use a butter knife to spread a layer of the Dijon mustard mixture onto both sides of your chicken breast. Then dip both sides of the chicken breast in the breadcrumbs to coat. 
5. Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a non-stick skillet. Once olive oil is warm*, place your chicken in the skillet to cook, turning halfway through so the chicken browns on both sides. Remove chicken from skillet and serve.

* A little trick I learned to ensure that your olive oil is at the right temp is to take a pinch of the bread crumbs and drop them in the warm oil... if it sizzles, you're ready to go!