My son had a laundry list of dishes he wanted for his birthday week… something I don’t usually get behind. A birthday week, that is. I have friends who celebrate their birthday all week and I find it absolutely ridiculous. A grown ass adult who feels the need to be celebrated for a week. Sorry, I find it ridiculous.
BUT, we are still in a pandemic. My son missed out on a normal birthday last year, and as his 16th birthday rolled around, it was obvious that a normal birthday still wasn’t in the cards. So when had dinner requests for the week, it was no big deal to acquiesce. Cap’n Crunch chicken was one of those requests, which I compromised with him that I would make it if we had it as a salad. He negotiated back that he’d take the salad if he could make fries. Deal.
I’ve posted up Cap’n Crunch chicken tenders before. I pan seared the ones I made last time, so this time around I decided to bake them. And what’s great about baking them is that they don’t need an egg coat before dipping them in the breadcrumb mix (aka Cap’n Crunch + Ritz cracker mix). Just be careful when flipping them halfway so the coating doesn’t come off. This method drops the calories significantly. No eggs, no oil. And adding these to a salad makes the salad still feel like a bit of a special treat.
While the chicken bakes, make the salad. I kept the salad similar to a traditional Cobb salad, but I added Belgian endive. Have you had endive before? If not, it is such a delicious addition to sweeter salads. It’s not cloyingly sweet. It adds just a subtle sweetness to the salad, which works really well with the honey mustard dressing.
The honey mustard dressing is super easy to make, and I definitely recommend making homemade rather than using store-bought. I actually really love this dressing. It’s a great low carb dressing to add to a lot of different types of salads.
This is such an easy weeknight meal to make that is both a treat and super healthful!
Enjoy!
Cap’n Crunch Chicken Honey Mustard Salad
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 16 minutes
- Total Time: 26 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Salad
- Cuisine: Dinner
Ingredients
Chicken
1½ cups chicken breast tenders
½ cup Ritz crackers, pulverized
1½ cups Cap’n Crunch, pulverized
¼ tsp cayenne
½ tsp salt
Salad
6 slice cooked thick cut bacon, roughly chopped
2 heads of romaine, chopped
1 Belgian endive, roughly chopped
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 English cucumber, quartered and cut into chunks
½ red onion, sliced and cut into thirds
1 – 2 avocados, sliced
Honey Mustard Dressing
¼ cup Dijon mustard
¼ cup honey
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
¼ cup olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
pinch of salt and pepper
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 425°F. Place a baking rack on top of a baking sheet.
In a medium bowl, mix together the crackers, Cap’n Crunch, cayenne, and salt. Pat the chicken dry. Dip both sides into the Cap’n Crunch mix, ensuring each tender is fully coated. Place each piece on the baking rack. Bake for 16 minutes, turning over halfway through.
Meanwhile, make the salad by tossing together the romaine, tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, bacon, and avocado.
In a small bowl or mason jar, mix together the Dijon mustard, honey, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, garlic, and salt and pepper.
Toss the salad with the desired amount of dressing. Dish into bowls and top with the cooked chicken tenders.
Eat!
Keywords: Cap’n Crunch chicken, Cap’n Crunch chicken salad, Cap’n Crunch chicken tenders, honey mustard salad, honey mustard salad dressing, chicken honey mustard, honey mustard chicken, honey mustard chicken salad
