Pretzel Crusted Chicken with Blue Cheese Sauce

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Pretzel Crusted Chicken Cutlets are breaded in a salty coating of pretzel bread crumbs, then fried up in a hot pan until crispy and golden brown. Before serving they get drizzled with warm blue cheese sauce. Your family will love this spin on traditional pan-fried chicken!

Overhead image of pretzel crusted chicken cutlets on a blue plate. One piece of chicken is sliced. Pretzels and blue cheese sauce are in the background.

We’ve all made fried chicken for dinner at least once or twice. This recipe steps it up a notch and breads thinly sliced chicken breast (chicken tenders work too) with a pretzel bread crumb coating.

The pretzels give the crumb coating a salty and buttery flavor. I always make a blue cheese sauce to serve warm alongside the crunchy chicken pieces.

I love this recipe because you only need 4 main ingredients to make the pretzel-crusted chicken and you can skip the blue cheese sauce if you’re in a hurry. Ketchup, honey mustard, BBQ, and ranch are all delicious dipping sauces as well.

Chicken breast doesn’t have to be a boring dinner option! If you're looking for an exciting chicken dinner, you can make this recipe, my Air Fryer Chicken Cutlets, Honey Butter Garlic Chicken or Cast Iron Skillet Chicken!

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Why you'll love this recipe
Ingredients
Equipment needed
How to make Pretzel Crusted Chicken
Storage and reheating
How to serve
Frequently asked questions
More chicken recipes you'll love
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Why you'll love this recipe

Flavor! This recipe has so many layers of flavor! You won’t find bland chicken breast on this website!
Easy! Sure, you need to dirty a few dishes when you’re breading chicken. The actual process is so simple though, and all the dishes can go straight into the dishwasher!
Make it gluten-free! This recipe is so simple to make gluten-free! Simply swap the all-purpose flour and the pretzels for gluten–free flour and gluten-free pretzels.

Ingredients

Chicken - When pan-frying chicken, it’s best to use thinner pieces of chicken breast. You can purchase chicken cutlets, chicken tenders, or chicken breast specifically labeled as “thinly sliced.” You can also use regular-sized pieces of chicken breast and either pound them thin with a meat mallet, butterfly them or cut them into thin slices yourself.

Pretzels - I recommend using thin pretzels. The thinner pretzels have more salt on them and the best flavor for this recipe.

Blue cheese - You’ll need a high quality, crumbly blue cheese to make the blue cheese sauce. If you need a substitute for blue cheese, try gorgonzola cheese.

Additional ingredients - You’ll also need several kitchen staple items to make this recipe. Check your refrigerator and pantry for all purpose flour, olive oil, eggs, whole milk, butter, Kosher salt, black pepper and garlic powder.

*Detailed ingredient list can be found in the recipe card below.

Equipment needed

Food processor or high-speed blender: You need to be able to turn the whole pretzels into pretzel bread crumbs. It’s easiest to do this using either a food processor (like this 9-Cup Cuisinart Food Processor) or a blender. I use my Ninja Professional Personal Blender.

Additional kitchen equipment needed: A few plates or shallow mixing bowls, measuring cups, measuring spoons and a small saucepan.

How to make Pretzel Crusted Chicken

Step 1: Turn your pretzels into pretzel bread crumbs. Pulse 4 cups of pretzels in either a high-speed blender or food processor. Pulse until you end up with 80% fine crumbs and 20% chunky pretzel pieces.

Step 2: Pat both sides of your chicken cutlets dry with a paper towel. Season both sides of the cutlets with kosher salt, black pepper and garlic powder.

Raw chicken cutlets, seasoned, on a white plate.

Step 3: Pour the all-purpose flour onto a large plate or into a shallow bowl. Crack the eggs into a shallow bowl and whisk until combined. Transfer the pretzel crumbs onto a large plate or into a shallow bowl.

Pretzel crumbs, flour and eggs in separate glass bowls.

Step 4: Start breading your chicken. Press all sides of the chicken into the flour, dunk into the eggs and then coat both sides with pretzel crumbs. Repeat this process with all of the pieces of chicken.

Breaded chicken cutlets, uncooked, on a sheet pan.

Step 5: Add the olive oil to a heavy duty cast iron skillet (or another high-heat frying pan), and heat over medium heat. When hot, place the pretzel crusted chicken into the frying pan.

Do not overcrowd the pan. You want space around each piece of chicken. Complete this step in batches if necessary.

Pretzel chicken cutlets searing in a cast iron skillet.

Step 6: Cook the chicken for 5 minutes over medium heat, flip, and cook for another 5 minutes. You may need to add small amounts of olive oil to the pan during the frying process, as the chicken can soak up the oil.

Use a digital meat thermometer to make sure the chicken has reached an internal temperature of at least 165°F.

Step 7: While the chicken is cooking, make the blue cheese sauce. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Once the butter is melted, whisk in the 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour. Whisk the flour and butter until a paste is formed. Pour in the milk. Increase the heat to medium and rapidly whisk the mixture. Continue whisking until the butter, flour, and milk have thickened.

After the mixture has thickened, turn the heat back down to low and add all of the crumbly blue cheese. Continue whisking in the cheese until it has melted.

Remove the chicken pieces from the heat, let rest for 10 minutes before slicing. Serve and enjoy!

Up close image of pretzel crusted chicken. sliced, on a blue plate.

Storage and reheating

How to store: Store leftover honey mustard chicken pieces in a glass, airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

How to reheat: The chicken will lose it's crispiness once it has cooled down and stored in the refrigerator. I suggest reheating the chicken in an oiled skillet so that you can crisp up the coating again.

How to serve

Easy sides: Pretzel Crusted Chicken is delicious with simple side dishes like steamed broccoli, green beans, cauliflower, rice, potatoes, pasta, and macaroni and cheese.

Over salad: Crispy chicken pieces that are coated in pretzel bread crumbs are also fantastic served over a cold, fresh vegetable salad with blue cheese salad dressing, honey mustard dressing or ranch dressing.

With other sauces: These crunchy chicken pieces would be amazing served with a drizzle of hot honey or tossed in Buffalo sauce!

As an appetizer: Instead of using chicken cutlets, use chicken tenders! Chicken tenders are an excellent party food. Chopping the chicken into bite-sized pieces before breading them, would also make these the perfect party snack.

Try any of these flavorful side dishes!

Frequently asked questions

Why is my pan-fried chicken tough?

This is likely due to overcooking. The best way to prevent overcooking is to use a digital meat thermometer while your chicken is cooking.

What is the difference between pan-fried chicken and deep-fried chicken?

Pan frying uses minimal amounts of oil when cooking the chicken, and is done in a skillet on the stovetop. Deep frying uses large amounts of oil and fully submerges the chicken into the oil while it's cooking