Oven Fried Southern Hot Honey Mustard Pretzel Popcorn Chicken

Who doesn’t love popcorn chicken?!?! These little chicken bites are so delicious and I love the Hot Honey sauce! Gerald keeps running out of honey, LOL! He adds honey and cinnamon to his toast every morning and I keep cooking with it, so I better load up on honey the next time that I go to the supermarket. Besides, hot honey sauce I have been replacing the sugar with honey for my dessert recipes, because Honey is good for us, right? 🙂 Oven Fried Southern Hot Honey Mustard Pretzel Popcorn Chicken

However, the best thing about this pretzel popcorn chicken is that it is BAKED and not fried in oil. So, as a mom I want to fix healthy meals for my family, but I also want them to enjoy their meal. And, these popcorn chicken bites are perfect, plus they cook really fast, probably because I cut them up into such small pieces.

How do I make pretzel popcorn chicken?

1. Cut up chicken breasts – you can cut the chicken up in strips or small popcorn chicken sizes
2. Dip into a wet mixture, usually it’s egg, but this recipe it is a honey mustard sauce
3. There are a couple different ways to cook this popcorn chicken
   • Bake in the oven
   • Deep fry in oil
   • Air fry in an air fryer

How do you get breading to stick to the chicken?

The wet mixture that you dip the chicken into allows the breading to stick. If your breading falls off just dip again into the wet mixture then the dry again. Also, I love to double dip my chicken for a crunchier crust! Especially, the cornflake crusted chicken is soooo good double dipped!

What can I serve with my honey mustard pretzel popcorn chicken?

• ketchup (this is my kid’s favorite dipping sauce, lol)
• gravy (Gabe’s idea! He was sitting next to me while I was typing this up. He was doing homeschool work and I asked him what to serve and he said, “Gravy!” So, he gets credit for this one, LOL, then he got wild and named off weird stuff, LOL)
• bbq sauce
• ranch dressing
• honey mustard
• hot honey sauce – warm honey and a little Frank’s Hot sauce in a small sauce pan on low heat. The honey to hot sauce ratio is really up to you, for example I will added about 1/4 cup of honey and just a couple drops of Franks hot sauce. But, if you like really spicy stuff then add more hot sauce. (really yummy!)
• honey
• sweet chili sauce (my favorite) – I buy the Panda Express brand at Wal-mart.

Here’s another version of baked chicken – Baked Crunchy Hot Honey Chicken Sandwich with sweet chili mayo. This breaded chicken recipe is my favorite recipe so far! The chicken is breaded with crushed cornflakes, baked in the oven and then the best part!!!! Hot honey sauce is drizzled over the top! OH MY! I LOVE HOT HONEY SAUCE, LOL!

Side Dishes for popcorn chicken:

• buttermilk biscuits
• mac and cheese
• pasta salad (my kids LOVE Ranch bacon pasta salad and it has to be the name brand, lol, we don’t buy a lot of name brand stuff, but I do on past salad and LOL, Pork n Beans, sorry but NO SHOWBOAT BEANS for me, LOL! That’s an off brand!)
• Van Camp Pork n beans
• fresh garden salad
• baked potato
• mashed potatoes
• french fries
• sweet potato fries (these are my favorite, I like to bake them in the oven and get them REALLY brown with a little olive oil and salt)
• fried okra or corn nuggets
• cole slaw
• potato chips

What do I need to make baked honey mustard pretzel popcorn chicken? (Scroll down for full printable recipe)

1. bag of pretzels – the pretzels can be sticks or twists, they all blend up the same way. Because, of the kids I always have the pretzel sticks, lol.
2. dip for breading: dijon mustard, honey and yogurt
3. Hot honey sauce is to drizzle after the popcorn chicken is done, you will need honey and Frank’s hot sauce – this sauce will be warmed up in a small saucepan over low heat.

For my pretzel breading, I used my Ninja mini blender to pulverize my pretzels. And, my Ninja did a great job at pulverizing up my pretzels into a breading.

What kind of pretzels do I need?

Any kind of pretzel will work, these are the ones that I had on hand, because my kids like the pretzel sticks, but any type will work.

In a small bowl, I added my Dijon mustard, honey and yogurt. And, blended with a whisk until it was combined. Also, I added a little black pepper, but that is optional.

I cut my chicken up into strips and some I cut up into popcorn chicken sizes. I made popcorn chicken and chicken strips.

Next, add a sheet of parchment paper to a baking sheet and bake until the internal temperature of the chicken is 165 degrees. Because, the chicken is cut up into such small piece it will not take very low to bake in the oven.

These are the small popcorn chicken pieces that I cut up. They are perfect to dip in your favorite sauce or add to the top of a fresh salad.

Honey Mustard Pretzel Chicken and Avocado Bacon Salad with Tahini Dressing

We’d love to see your recipes! If you make this recipe or a different recipe from our blog, be sure to tag us @thelazyKkitchen on social media so we can see your awesome creations!

Try some of our other recipes!

• Super easy 4 ingredient chicken and dumplings
• Baked Crunchy Hot Honey Chicken Sandwich with Sweet Chili Mayo
• Baked Buffalo Chicken Egg Rolls with Cilantro Lime Ranch
• Easy Garlic Bread Casserole
• The Easiest Chicken Pot Pies
• Easy Dorito Chicken Casserole
• Savory Brown Sugar Meatloaf

Plus, dessert recipes!!

• Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake brownies
• Apple Fritter Bread
• Red Velvet Poke Cake
• Butterfinger Caramel Cake
• Granny Eppler’s Peach Cobbler
• S’more Cookies
• Orange Dream Cookies
• Strawberry Delight Cheesecake