Panko Baked Chicken with Dijon Mustard

This chicken is great on salads, but I'm sure you can use it in all sorts of ways. It's an easy and quick way to jazz up chicken breasts without adding a lot of extra fat. The strips weren't nearly as crispy when I reheated the leftovers for lunch, but it still tasted great. If you'd like a more golden brown crispy crust on the chicken you could pan fry the strips in a butter and olive oil mixture, but I think this baked version is quite tasty and lacks the extra fat you would add by frying.

The first salad I made featured great vegetables from my csa farm box. I added the chicken to oven roasted chioggia beets, thinly sliced tokyo turnips and peppery arugula dressed with a light balsamic vinaigrette that was topped with crumbled aged Gouda. 

Panko Baked Chicken with Dijon Mustard

2 large chicken breasts

3 tablespoons dijon mustard

~1 teaspoon kosher salt 

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

red chile flakes, to taste

~1 cup of panko bread crumbs

- Preheat the oven to 425˚F

- Cut the chicken into long strips, lengthwise down the breast. The thickness of the strips are up to you, just make them as similar as possible. Pat the strips dry with a paper towel. Mix the mustard, salt, pepper and chile flakes in a small bowl. Brush the mixture on all sides of the chicken. Roll each strip in the panko bread crumbs and make sure each strip is evenly coated. 

- Place the chicken strips on a large cookie sheet and bake for 8-12 minutes until the chicken is cooked. This will greatly depend on the size of your strips. If you'd like to brown the chicken a bit more, you can also try to broil the strips for 2-3 minutes at the end of cooking time but make sure you subtract this time from the baking time to prevent overcooking the chicken.