Pecan Encrusted Chicken Tenders with Bourbon

Cook on Sunday, Eat until Thursday. I’m Allie and you’re watching Economy Bites. I’m trying something new. I’m trying to take a lipstick. You got to keep trying things until you find something that works. We found ourselves a bourbon whiskey that sure does work. Our tagline here at Economy Bites before we came up with Cook on Sunday, Eat Until Thursday, very, very loyal viewers we remember was “Save your money for drinks.” Friday and Saturday, you go out or you buy yourself a nice bottle of something like this to enjoy because you’ve saved so much money all week that you get a little splurge worthy product on the days when you’re not giving in. We have here this bottle of Basil Hayden’s Bourbon Whiskey. Basil Hayden’s was kind enough to sponsor our one year anniversary party. We’re going to cook with it, so you guys know that it is kitchen friendly but we’re not counting it as part of the price of the recipe because really, it’s for drinking and enjoying by the fire in a goblet, maybe stroking a kitty cat wearing your smoking jacket. Take our three skinless boneless chicken breasts. Put a piece of wax paper up above. Use our knife to cut each chicken breast into three to four tenders, maybe like an inch or two; three, three and half a day. So now, I’m going to take my bowl here. Beat two eggs with a little bit of my Basil Hayden’s and I’m going to just coat the chicken in the eggs for like 10 minutes while I get my crafts going. It smells like Kentucky. Raw chicken and egg, that’s beautiful. What I realize is I don’t know what to call these crackers other than—so we’re going to take just a sleeve of these crackers. Put them in a plastic bag. We’re going to crumble them really fine. I made barely any mess doing that. That’s impressive. Make sure you get the bag shut. Crumble them up real fine. I got these pecans here. I think you should have two cups and I’m going to put them in my blender because my food processor bit the bullet. We also want to get them really, really fine. It smells so good. Do you like pecans? So, I’ve got my pecans in there. Now, I’m going to add my crackers. I’m going to use my nice, clean, washed hands like I do, absolutely washing always. Black pepper and a little bit of salt. So, I’m going to take some foil, cookie sheet. Do the chicken cookies. So, we borrow chicken in the egg and we got our handy dandy cracker here. We’re just going to wallah! Sorry, I forgot. I went to turn my oven on the 375. Don’t they look good? And we’re going to bake them in the oven so they’re not going to be bad for you, except we’re going to put a cream sauce on them. I’m thinking about the fire that’s about to come up. We’re about to make a flame. Drink responsibly and always have a fire extinguisher on the ready, not that we do. There’s also relaxing things in this recipe like I’m relaxing by smashing things, smashing helps me relax and also, by doing crust like this. Let’s get ready to prepare our sauce, a shallot, a Kentucky bourbon shallot. We’re going to mince it really fine. I’m just looking at that chicken obviously, it’s salivating. I’m going to take my pan here, turn it on high or medium high. I’m going to start with a little butter and olive oil. I want the butter to kind of be like the backbone of the sauce here. We’re going to use it and we’re going to temper it with olive oil to make it not burn. No, there’s no vortex because there’s no lid. Okay, now it’s nice and bubbly. We’re going to toss in our shallots. Our oven is hot now, so we’re going to toss in our chicken tenders. We’re going to put it in for about 10 minutes. Let’s measure out a half a cup of the bourbon. If you have never cooked with bourbon before, prepare yourself because we are going to get a huge—flame that you’re going to be like “Whoa!” Okay, I’m just like readying you right now because it’s going to blow your mind. It will die. It’s about to die, burn with fire. Be very, very careful and wait until it fully dies down before you add a cup of chicken broth. Now, we’re just going to let this sauce come to a boil. We’re going to use some heavy cream. I don’t like to use that much because I feel like then when I’m eating it, I can’t -- because much of it causes this to -- it’s too much. So, I’m only going to add like a fourth cup. I got this really delicious bourbon whiskey in there. I want to make sure we get a taste of that in the honey and the mustard, not just the green. I’m just waiting for it to reduce down. Did you see that flame? It’s still hot right here. Did you catch the feeling? It’s hot though. Did it shock you? It’s reduced by about half. Now, we’re going to add two teaspoons of grainy mustard, teaspoon of hot sauce and about a tablespoon of honey. Honey and bourbon, classic combination, then we’re going to bring it down to a simmer. Last but not least, we’re going to add our cream and we’re just going to correct the seasoning after getting a taste with salt and pepper to make sure that it tastes good. The sauce is really sweet and just a tiny of that spiciness, that red bourbon sauce. Here’s the mustard. And now, we’ll just want this sauce simmer until our chicken tenders are done. So, it’s been about 10 minutes. Let’s check on our tenders, pretty good I think we’re going to flip these. The best way to test, take the biggest one you find, give it a little cut in the middle. Make sure it’s cooked through. So, a little time, it’s pink inside. I’m going to give the rest of them for a couple more minutes to cook, so let’s take these guys out. Now, let me show you the final presentation. Now, you see how these are nice and big but don’t forget that each one is only like a third of a chicken breast. So, you can eat three of them with its filling and now, I’m going to take back my sauce. It’s been simmering here. We don’t need a whole lot for chicken if the sauce is sweet and nice and thick. Let’s give one of these a taste. This is a fork and knife kind of meal. Nice and tender on the inside, crunchy and sweet on the outside. These are seriously delicious. There’s the honey and the mustard. I can taste the bourbon in the sauce. I’m drunk in fact. Thanks again for Basil Hayden’s for dropping by and cooking with us today. Remember, all the money you save eating in all week long, you’re saving it for fun times, Friday and Saturday which hopefully includes a little bit of our favorite bourbon whiskey and the leftovers, they can go right here in your meal on Sunday. Cook on Sunday, Eat until Thursday. I’m Allie, see you next time!