Pistachio-Crusted Chicken Breast

After dropping off a couple friends Sunday morning, I stopped at the grocery store to grab some lunch before heading into work (yes, work on a Sunday = not fun). As I wandered around the bulk foods section, I caught sight of pistachios and decided to grab some to snack on during my Sunday work day. Later, while I was sitting at work, I had the urge to make pistachio-crusted chicken. Why? Who knows; it's not like I even had chicken at home at the time. But I went with my instinct and bought some chicken breast, spinach, and red pepper on my way home. Below is the result.

Pistachio-Crusted Chicken Breast

1 chicken breast
1/2 cup pistachios
Salt and Pepper
1 red bell pepper
1 1/2 cups baby spinach
Plastic wrap









Roasted bell pepper: Set the oven to broil. Place your bell pepper onto a baking pan. After giving the oven a few minutes to heat up, put the pan into the oven, 4-6" away from the top of the oven (aka the heat). After 5 minutes, check the pepper. If the top is starting to get some burnt spots (you want this), turn the pepper to the next side; if not, cook for another minute and check again. Rotate the pepper every 5ish minutes until all sides have the slightly burnt spotty look. Take the pan out of the oven and place the pepper into a bowl, covering with plastic wrap. Let sit for 20 minutes. Cut out the stem and remove the seeds and ribs. You can either cut the pepper in half to do this and scrape the inside to remove the seeds, or you can leave the pepper intact, grab the end of the pepper, and squeeze the pepper from the end you're holding to the open end. This will get rid of most of the seeds. After you do this, cut the pepper into slices.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grab two pieces of plastic wrap and a meat tenderizer/pan. The meat tenderizer is preferred, but a pan will work as well. Wet the counter-top before placing one piece of plastic wrap on your counter (the water keeps the wrap from sliding while you flatten the chicken). Place the chicken on the plastic wrap, and cover with the second piece of plastic wrap. Pound the chicken breast so that it 1/2" thick. Let that aggression out!

Place the pistachios in a food processor or blender and process until ground. There may be some pistachios that don't get completely ground - that's okay. Place the pistachios grounds into a reseal-able plastic bag. Mix in salt and pepper. If your pistachios have been roasted you may not need to add salt. I used raw pistachios though, so a little salt is needed (~1/4 tsp). Add the chicken breast and shake until the chicken is completely covered. 

Place the chicken onto a baking pan and cook in the oven for 30-35 minutes. The pistachios should be toasted, but not too burnt. This is how mine looked when I took it out of the oven.

Plate your baby spinach and cover with the chicken breast. Top this off with 1/4 cup of your roasted red pepper (or more if you want). Voilà!