Oven-fried chicken

Yesterday we had oven-fried chicken. Originally, I was going to try the recipe from America’s Test Kitchen’s Best Light Recipes, but it called for dipping the chicken in an egg white/Dijon mixture and a) we are not huge condiment folks so we don’t have and would rarely use Dijon; b) I wanted to soak them in buttermilk like a proper fried chicken. 🙂 I used the same spices the ATK recipe called for, but increased them, and also added in some paprika as well as some dry mustard to the coating mixture. This made a nice, juicy, flavorful baked chicken, but let’s be honest, it is nowhere near the real deal fried goodness!

Oven Fried Chicken
2 skinless chicken breasts (or use any pieces you want, preferably bone-in)
1 cup low fat buttermilk
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp paprika
salt and pepper
Melba toasts (about 15-20), processed to a coarse crumb
1 tablespoon oil
1/4 tsp. dried mustard

Whisk together buttermilk, garlic powder, thyme, cayenne, paprika, salt and pepper. Pour mixture over chicken breasts and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 400.

Combine crushed melba toasts, oil and dry mustard. Coat chicken breasts in coating mixture, pressing to adhere.

Place chicken on a wire rack (I used a cooling rack), on top of a cookie sheet. Spray the chicken with some oil spray.

Bake until chicken is done, about 45 minutes for bone-in and 30ish for boneless.

We had this with buttermilk mashed potatoes, and roasted green beans (just olive oil, salt and pepper, put them in the last 10 minutes the chicken was cooking).