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From our Food Goddess, TaMara:
I thought we’d covered oven baked chicken before, but it turns out we have not. Since this is one of my favorite ways to make chicken, I was surprised. So that’s tonight’s theme. There are many different ways to go about making crispy baked chicken, I like Italian bread crumbs and panko for mine. Sometimes I soak the chicken in buttermilk for an hour and use that instead of egg to get the breadcrumbs to adhere. But if I’m in a hurry, it’s just the traditional recipe that I’ve posted below. And by traditional, I mean the one I grew up with, although my mom used rice crispies and cut up chicken pieces.
To change things up, you can add ingredients, like parmesan cheese, sesame seeds (there’s a recipe for that below), corn flakes or rice crispies. I saw a very interesting recipe recently that used toasted pecans, breadcrumbs and panko as the coating. I’m going to recipe test that one when I have a chance.
If you want something a little different, one of my favorites is Crispy Potato Chicken (recipe here).
Craving a Crispy and Spicy Chicken Sandwich? Here’s a recipe that comes close to a famous fast food joint.
And for something completely different, how about Baked Chicken with Peaches? (recipe here).
If you’re looking to barbecue chicken that’s not all scorched on the outside and raw inside, either on the grill or in the oven, I have some simple tips here.
Grilled, baked, fried or barbecued, what’s your favorite style of chicken? Do you have one of those favorite childhood foods you just have to make once a week or so? Share some recipes in the comments.
On to tonight’s two featured recipes:
Oven Fried Chicken
2 boneless chicken breasts
4 bonelss chicken thighs
1 cup Italian breadcrumbs
1 1/2 cups Panko
2 eggs, beaten
1 tbsp olive oil
¼ cup water**
salt & pepper to taste (at least 1/8 tsp each)
large mouth bowl, large plate and baking sheet lined with foil or parchmentWash and pat chicken dry. In a large bowl, add water, eggs, oil, salt and pepper and beat well. Mix together and spread Italian breadcrumbs and panko evenly on large plate. Take chicken pieces one at a time and dip in egg wash, coating completely, dredge in bread crumbs until lightly coated on all sides. Place on baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes with foil covering the chicken, uncover and cook additional 15 minutes.
If you want to punch up the coating, you can add additional dry herbs to the breadcrumb mixture, I usually add some extra garlic and onion powder, a touch of cayenne, a bit of dried basil and rosemary.
This next recipe is great when the kids want chicken fingers, or it can be used with breasts and thighs as well, but you’ll need to increase the portions of breadcrumbs and sesame seeds to equal 3 cups.
Sesame Chicken Fingers
1/2 cup stone-ground mustard
1/2 cup honey
3 tbsp limejuice
salt & pepper
½ cup sesame seeds
1 cup Italian breadcrumbs
1 egg, beaten
¼ cup water
1 tbsp sesame oil or olive oil
1 to 1 ½ lbs chicken tenders
baking sheet, greased or lined with parchment or foil
2 bowls and 1 plateMix mustard, honey & limejuice in bowl, set aside. On plate mix salt, pepper, breadcrumbs & sesame seeds. In second bowl, add egg, water & oil. Dip chicken in egg wash then dredge in breadcrumbs. Line on baking sheet, bake at 425° for 10 minutes, turn, and bake an additional 5 to 10 minutes, should be crispy on all sides. Serve with mustard dipping sauce, waffle fries and a fresh vegetable tray for a quick and easy dinner.
FlipYrWhig
You don’t flour the chicken first, before the egg wash?
Ben Franklin
Panko mixed with some cumin, dredge in flour, dip in egg, fry in EVOO, then drizzle some fresh lemon juice over the crust. No need for anything else, including side dishes.
PaminBB
Hmm, when I see “oven baked chicken”, I think on the bone (edited to add that I know, that could better be termed roasted). That sesame one sounds pretty good, might try it with boneless thighs vs. tenders.
TaMara (BHF)
@FlipYrWhig: You can, but it’s not necessary when doing this type of baking. Just make sure you cover for the first half of baking, since these are skinless, to keep them from drying out.
EDIT to add, I’m heading out, but I’ll try and stop by later to answer any Q’s
FlipYrWhig
@TaMara (BHF): Thx for replying!
Beezus
Old school… try crushed BBQ chips.
Mnemosyne
I’m still at work, but I have a really tasty baked chicken recipe in my old Going Solo in the Kitchen book that I’ll have to post.
I also have a link to Nutty Irishman Cupcakes with Frangelico in the batter and Bailey’s Irish Cream in the frosting, but that, too, is at home. Soon, I promise!
ETA: Also, if anyone has a good baked chicken with pretzel crust recipe, I’d be curious to see it.
TaMara (BHF)
@Beezus: Oh, my that sounds amazing. A perfect comfort food.
Ronald Lucifer Reagan
I love me some breaded chicken, but man, the flour and the egg wash creates a mess, and think of the dishes! Oh the dishes.
Jay S
Can you replace the baked chicken’s Italian bread crumbs with more Panko and additional seasonings, or is it part of the texture?
mclaren
You do realize that thing in the photo looks like a facehugger out of the movie Alien…
Quaker in a Basement
Fried chicken? In the oven?
This is an affront to my deep Southern hehtij an’ culchah.
Thor Heyerdahl
Just finished cooking some Jing Du Pork in a wok. I can’t remember who posted the link to the Rasa Malaysia site http://rasamalaysia.com/peking-pork-chops/2/ but thank you…this recipe turned out pretty well.
I’m serving it over brown jasmine rice with choy and a hoisin+sambal olek vegetable stir fry containing red peppers, oyster mushrooms, chives, bean sprouts and cilantro stalks
That’s two great recipes I’ve cooked on my new wooden 14″ long-handled wok. Last weekend was homemade Pad Thai. The 20 inch wok I have will wait until I get some serious cooking fire underneath it.
Mnemosyne
Link to the cupcakes recipe: Nutty Irishman Cupcakes
I’m too lazy at the moment to transcribe the baked chicken recipe, but I’ll circle back and do it later tonight.
Evolving Deep Southerner
Peanut oil. This is the essential ingredient. The rest is just personal taste and variation.
As for me, a mix of 4/5ths self-rising flour, 1/5 corn meal. Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning and cracked black pepper to taste. No egg (or any other kind of) wash, just make sure the meat and its brining water is room temperature or else all your breading will slough off.
Everybody here is making this way more complicated than it needs to be. Egg wash? Buttermilk? No, people. Sounds good on paper. If you’re washing your meat in anything, it should be salt water (brine) at room temperature. Nothing else.
raven
Nice. I bought a big ass turkey at, of all places, Target for $.69 a lb. I’m going to marinate it in the sour orange I bought to make the Versailles Cuban Chicken and see what happens.
ranchandsyrup
Been doing a lot of beer can chicken. Rub over and under skin. Put some rub and fresh herbs in the beer. Our oven in temperamental so I get better results on the grill. Super moist.
My wife wraps asparagus and Swiss cheese in chicken paillards rolled in panko with a crazy good mustard sauce.
beergoggles
The secret to stop them from drying out is to run some chicharones through the food processor and use them in addition to the bread crumbs when coating the chicken. Trust me, the dried fried pork skin fat adds some serious juiciness and flavor to the chicken.
khead
I’m hungry.
ranchandsyrup
@raven: I need to try that. People go nuts over the Versailles mojo.
beergoggles
@Thor Heyerdahl: The Rasa Malaysia site has been brightening my tastebuds for a while now. As long as they stay away from the Dinugan I’m willing to try it.
raven
@ranchandsyrup: Yea, I looked for a recipe for years and then found that the Mexican grocery around the corner carries the sour orange. . .who knew??
Yutsano
@Thor Heyerdahl: I’ve stumbled over there a few times and salivated. I even think I’ve linked to there here before. But I give all due credit to our dear Malaysian posted Amir, since that’s the food he’s lived around all his life. Even though he has confessed to not being much of a cook.
Thor Heyerdahl
@Yutsano:
Even if he’s not much of a cook he has those glorious night markets.
Don K
The almost-weekly recipe at this household alternates between wings breaded in Italian bread crumbs with parmesan and pepper and baked, then doused in buffalo sauce and boneless thighs (the best chicken cutlets) breaded in Italian crumbs or panko with parmesan and pepper, then fried in olive oil and topped with capers sauteed in the olive oil with some butter and lemon juice added.
The fried boneless thighs also make a great base for chicken parm, but then we always have some red gravy either in the fridge or in the freezer for such things.
Yutsano
@Thor Heyerdahl: Oh man. I just have this vision of me eating through Asia. Street vendors in every country. Ddeokbokki in Seoul. Ramen in Osaka. I’m drooling now. :)
TaMara (BHF)
@Jay S: The cool thing about this recipe is you can do pretty much anything with it. My mom’s recipe (and practically every mother in the 60s-70s)used just rice crispies, so I think just panko would be fine. I’d season it heavily because you don’t have the pre–seasoned breadcrumbs. It might also take more egg/water bath to get them to adhere well.
Haydnseek
@Beezus: BBQ chips…good idea. You also might want to try crushed Cheez-its. Sounds weird, but aside from tasting good they retain crunch so you don’t lose that crisp texture.
01jack
Asterisks refer me to…