Recipe: Pecan Crusted Chicken with Creole Sauce (using chicken breasts)

PECAN CRUSTED CHICKEN

"Besides complementing chicken, the Creole Sauce goes well with meat or with plain pasta or rice. Fresh tomatoes a are super, but if you get a craving for Creole next January, you can use four or five Roma tomatoes."

1 1/4 cups pecans, ground medium fine
1/2 cup fine dry bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
2/3 cup egg substitute
2 to 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Creole Sauce (recipe follows)

In a shallow dish, mix together pecans, crumbs, salt and pepper; set aside.

Rinse chicken and pat dry; trim visible fat and cartilage. Pound to uniform thinness (about 1/4-inch) between sheets of plastic wrap. Dip into egg substitute; coat with seasoned pecan-crumb mixture.

In a large non-stick skillet, saute chicken in olive oil, 4 to 5 minutes a side, until cooked through.

Serve with Creole sauce.

CREOLE SAUCE
Makes 4 cups sauce

3 tablespoons butter
2 cups chopped onion
1 1/2 cups chopped celery
3 garlic cloves, pressed
3 tomatoes, seeded, chopped*
8 ounces tomato sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1/3 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons dried parsley flakes, crushed
1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce or more, to taste
Pecan-Crusted Chicken (recipe above) or hot, cooked rice or pasta (for serving)

Melt butter in large skillet; add onion and celery. Saute over high heat 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add garlic, tomatoes, tomato sauce, brown sugar, salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Cook 5 minutes.

Add green pepper, chicken broth and parsley flakes; cook 5 to 6 minutes more. (Green pepper should still be slightly crunchy.)

Add Tabasco; simmer 1 or 2 minutes more. Taste; adjust seasonings.

Serve with Pecan-Crusted Chicken or with hot, cooked rice or pasta.

*To seed tomatoes, cut in half across the "equator," turn cut side down and squeeze gently.

Makes 4 servings
Source: Jack and Mary Billings in the St Louis Post Dispatch, August 31, 1998