Necessity is the mother of invention and often new recipes. In the past I would buy premade pecan chicken breasts from the store and bake them in the oven. The pecan chicken was good, but sometimes they had too much fat in the chicken and lacked a good pecan flavor. The last pecan chicken I purchased at another store, tasted like garbage.  I had to throw the pecan chicken in the trash can. Since then, I have vowed to create my own pecan crust coating.  Creating my own recipe for pecan crusted chicken using fresh chicken breasts.  This pecan crusted chicken recipe uses real crushed pecans.  Real crushed pecans enhanced the flavor of the pecan crusted chicken that premade lacked. 

I originally made this recipe by frying it in a pan but decided to recreate it by baking it in the oven.  I was glad I did; it was so tender and juice while being quick and easy to make.  Once the chicken is in the oven all the prep work is done.

My first recipe I added Panko breadcrumbs to the mix.  I discovered Panko breadcrumbs didn’t add anything to the flavor of the coated chicken.  The Panko muted the flavor of the Italian breadcrumbs and pecans.  This updated version I have omitted the Panko breadcrumbs, and the flavor of the Italian breadcrumbs shine through.