Recipe Share: Oven Fried Chicken

In the past, I have been lead astray by many "healthy" fried chicken recipes. Most use bread crumbs and egg to try and duplicate the most delicious and unhealthy of chicken coatings. Most end up with a dry and crumbly outside that is not anywhere near true finger-lickin' fried chicken.

This one was different. And delicious! They key? Butter, of course!

Oven Fried Chicken

• 3lbs chicken pieces, rinsed and patted dry*
• ½ cup melted butter (I only use about half this amount and can’t tell a difference)
• ½ cup flour, heaping
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• 1 ½ teaspoons paprika

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Mix together flour, salt, pepper and paprika (I do this in a Ziploc bag). Dip chicken pieces in melted butter and then coat evenly with flour mixture.

Place in a single layer on a greased shallow baking pan (skin side down – if you’ve left the skin on).

Bake 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Turn chicken pieces over and continue baking an additional 30 minutes.

Serves 4

*The original recipe calls for the skin to be left on, but I usually remove the skin. It’s good either way!

I followed the tips in the posted recipe (1/4 cup butter and no skin) and was pleasantly surprised by how close to real fried chicken this was. I also added a bit more pepper and some garlic powder.

The skin was moist and not weirdly crumbly like most oven fried chicken recipes and overall it was pretty damn good! Next time I think I will add some herbs to the flour mixture as well.

Yes, the butter sort of takes away from the "healthy" aspect but in comparison to true fried-in-a-pan-of-oil chicken, I'd say this is a healthy step up. Plus, WAY less mess.

Give it a shot and let me know what you think!