A Nutty, Crunchy Coating to Keep Your Chicken Moist

There are 3 million chicken recipes on the internet. We're here to show you the good ones. Win, win.

Today: Don't suffer another dry chicken breast.

Dry chicken has the potential to turn even the most stalwart carnivore into a vegetarian, as is often the case with boneless, skinless chicken breasts. In frequent rotation on the weeknight dinner table, chicken breasts turn out to be a disappointment more often than not. They are lower in fat than the darker meat like thighs and legs, and easy to overcook, leaving them flavorless and chalky rather than juicy and tender. 

These Walnut-Crusted Chicken Breasts are anything but that. Walnuts are blitzed with whole wheat bread and Parmesan cheese to make a crunchy coating for what could otherwise be boring breasts. Rolled around in the nutty breading, then pan-fried before a quick finish in the oven, the result is a casual weeknight chicken recipe that's moist, flavorful, and ready to be served with a green salad for a light dinner. Cook up a double batch of these -- sliced over your desk-side salad or tucked between two slices of bread and the sandwich fixings of your choice, this is the kind of chicken you'll want to be eating all week.

Walnut-Crusted Chicken Breasts by pretty

Serves 4

2 slices whole wheat bread, stale
1/3 cup walnuts
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
1 large egg white
4 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless (6 to 8 ounces each)
1 tablespoon grapeseed oil
2 lemon slices, for serving
Green salad, for serving

See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.

Photo by James Ransom

Is there an undiscovered Food52 chicken recipe you love? Send us a paragraph or two at [email protected] about why you love it, and it could be next week's Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner.