panko-dijon crusted chicken with fingerling potatoes and tossed greens and feta

another lesson in how to use up ingredients in your fridge. i had a packet of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, a bottle of dijon mustard, a bag of mixed greens and some fingerling potatoes.

searching the terms, "chicken" and "mustard" on chow, i found the following recipe. there was no way i could get my hands on dukkah to coat the chicken, so i found a packet of panko breadcrumbs in my pantry. perfect! always be willing to substitute. no one ever has all the ingredients needed, especially on a weeknight. if you're ever interested in doing some food substitution research, check out the cook's thesaurus.

anyway, what follows is inspired by the chow recipe.

i first whisked 2 T dijon with some olive oil and salt and pepper to form a thick vinagrette which would act as a "batter" for the panko breadcrumbs to adhere to. knowing the original recipe's breadcrumbs had a lot of spice and flavor, i added the following to the "batter:" 2 cloves of chopped garlic, a teaspoon of cumin and a teaspoon of ground coriander, which are two spices commonly found in mediterranean cuisine. (now that i look at the dukkah recipe, i'm realizing cumin and coriander are the main spices; i had correctly guessed it without even reading the recipe. cool!)

i then added 2 pounds of chicken thighs (about 7 thighs) and let it marinate while...

i preheated the oven to 400* and prepared a make-shift cooling rack on a sheet pan. the roasting rack works in a pinch but isn't nice and flat like a mesh cooling rack would be. oh well. it worked.

a batter line was then created to...

coat the chicken pieces in panko...

and line the rack. the elevated rack allows hot air to circulate completely around the chicken so that it browns and crisps all over, instead of having soggy bottoms.

this then went into the hot oven for 25 minutes. meanwhile, i prepared a package of tj's fingerling potatoes in the microwave (only 5 minutes, amazing) and prepared a simple salad of tossed greens, sliced red onions, feta and balsamic and evoo.

after the timer went off, the chicken needed some more time to brown, so while it stayed in the oven for another 8 minutes, i prepped a quick sauce per the chow recipe's directions using about a 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar and a tablespoon or so of honey. this was reduced over a med-low flame for about 10 minutes until thickened. be careful if you try this, reduce it too far to a thick syrup and you'll have a hell of a time scrubbing the pot. it thickens as it cools.

as you can see, the chicken browned quite nicely all over. i plated everything together and drizzled the balsamic reduction over the chicken...

amazing! it suddenly looks like tonkatsu, the japanese breaded pork cutlet!

a close up of the panko-dijon chicken thighs. panko creates a very crispy but light coating. the olive oil batter helped "fry" the panko here.

the fingerling potatoes are a little tart on their own. nothing a drizzle of good evoo and fresh cracked pepper didn't save.

ah. fresh greens with a little bit of tartness and the creaminess of feta cheese. perfect for offsetting the slightly oilier chicken.

and as for the chicken, it was incredibly moist and tender on the inside, yet crunch on the out. the sweet-tart balsamic reduction perfectly countered the spicy bitterness of the dijon.

wow. totally impressed myself with this one. crunchy goodness without the deep fried part. yes, i will be making this again, and yes, you should try it.