Pistachio crusted chicken with cashew mustard sauce

Adapted from: The Vegan Foodie

If I haven't said it before I am going to say it now. I love Pistachio's and recently I have become obsessed with trying to figure out new ways to use them besides just snacking. I recently found this recipe using tofu not like the chicken I used here. After I made it I can understand why tofu was the protein of choice. This dish is just full of flavor on so many levels. I feel like if you made it with tofu you would not even realize that it was in fact tofu.

I think the hardest part about this was not being able to find already shelled pistachios. So it took a little time, but it was so worth it. Begin by setting aside about 1/2 cup of pistachios.

There is so much flavor in this dish do yourself a favor and get the no salt pistachios. You wont even miss it trust me. Plus it will be that much better for you and you cant beat that.

Then place the pistachio's in your food processor or basically anything that is going to pulverize the dickens out of the nuts!!! You could put them in a gallon ziploc and whack away at it or send a rolling pin over it a few times.

The night before you should marinade your chicken or tofu if that is your choice.

The marinade consists of:

- 3 tbs of soy sauce

- 1/2 of a lemon squeezed

- splash or two of white wine

The night you are making the dish mix up your breading for the chicken/tofu.

Your breading consists of:

- 1/2 cup of pistachios

- 1/2 cup of panko breadcrumbs

- 1/4 tsp of lemon zest

- pepper and salt

Take a marinated chicken breast out and brush both sides with Dijon mustard. Go ahead layer it on there you know you want to!! It will add so much flavor !!

Then take that Dijon soaked chicken breast and dip it in your breading. Make sure you get all the sides coated. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and spray some PAM on a baking sheet then lay our your chicken. I baked the chicken for about 25-30 minutes. Be sure to test the middle of one just to be sure they are done.

Then get your quick and easy spinach ready. I think next time I make this I will use kale. I like a little crunch to my greens. Or if you are like me and like a little crunch to your greens you could just use fresh spinach and not cook it. But for the purpose of this recipe and staying to its originality I will continue with how I actually prepared it. I literally dumped a bag of spinach in a frypan, poured a 1/2 of white wine, and a lot of garlic covered it and let it go.

Your final step is to create the cashew mustard sauce:

- 1 cup of skim milk

- 1/2 cup of pureed cashews

- 4 tbs of Dijon mustard

- 1 tbs of whole grain mustard

- 1 shallot minced

- 1 garlic clove minced

- 1 tbs of parsley

- a splash of white wine

- 1/2 tbs of lemon juice

- 1 tbs of evoo

- salt and pepper

Crush up your cashews !!

Heat up your evoo and add the garlic and shallot.

Then add everything else into the pot and mix through. It will thicken up quickly so keep an eye on it.

Now time to assemble your masterpiece. Lay a bed of about 1 cup of spinach on your plate. Then about 1/2 cup of brown rice. Lay your piece of chicken on top of that. Then drizzle some of that cashew sauce on top of the whole thing. You will love this. If you are vegetarian or someone that enjoys tofu and you make it in this manner you will be one happy little pea in a pod.

Enjoy !!!