Thighs, breasts, skin or skinless, bone-in or boneless, it works for all!
This oven fried chicken might quite possibly be one of the mister's favorite recipes. It's got all of the qualities that he loves in fried chicken: crispy skin, juicy meat, a tolerable but noticeable level of spiciness, and, of course, chicken with a bone in it (for some reason he despises boneless chicken). BUT, this awesome recipe lacks something that he previously had been convinced that he needed: frying. Oh, yeah, and no breadcrumbs needed, either.
In fact, this recipe was made entirely without adding any fat or calories WHATSOEVER, and yet turned out so juicy and crispy and amazing that the hubs demanded it to be served AT LEAST once a week. I'll admit, the top of the chicken did turn a bit darker than I intended, but after 45 minutes at 425-degrees without covering it AT ALL, what could you really expect? As it turns out, you can expect awesomely delicious, crispity juicy chicken with a SLIGHTLY unphotogenic appearance.
Hey, see that plate on the left? IT DOESN'T EVEN HAVE SKIN ON IT. I removed the skin from mine to be healthier. Say what?! My original plan was to use regular old chicken thighs. But apparently, these dudes (chicken drumsticks and some kind of chicken part, maybe thighs, maybe not, $2 for a package of 4) look exactly like thighs when you pull them out of the fridge. Oh well, they still worked amazingly well. And were incredibly delicious. And easy, OMG. And, did I mention healthy?
Yeah, again, no fatty skin on the chicken in the above picture, and yet it still has the awesome crispity outside Here's what I did:
- Spread out about a cup of flour onto a plate (i like disposable paper or plastic for easy clean-up, but do as you will). Preheat your oven to 425-degrees around this time, and also spray whatever pan your using with nonstick spray.
- Add whatever seasonings you prefer to the flour, but the essentials are (a few shakes of each): garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, seasoned salt, and pepper. We like it spicy and flavorful, so I add a healthy double dose of cayenne pepper along with some awesome cajun seasoning. Mix the flour-seasoning mixture up until it's all blended together.
- Now you have the choice of whatever you want to dip your chicken in to help the breading stick. Eggs are always recommended, but I've used milk and buttermilk, and even plain coffee creamer mixed with water with the same results. Egg keeps it stickier, but it's really up to you.
- Anyways, dip your chicken in the flour mixture, then into your egg-milk-buttermilk-whatever substance, then back into the flour. Make sure every part of the chicken is covered. Idk if it's important, but it looks nice.
- After the chicken has been floured a second time, plop it into your cooking pan. Now is an awesome time to add some frozen veggies that you have stashed in the freezer, Toss them in the pan, too, and cover them with similar seasonings to the chicken. They roast up incredibly.
- Super spray that chicken (and veggies, if you added them), with some nonstick spray. Like, douse it until it looks wettish. Then, stick the pan into the oven. And done! Forget about it for like 40 minutes, depending what kind of chicken you're using. Thighs? Maybe about 35 to 40 minutes. Legs, and parts, like I did? 55-ish. Breasts? I highly suggest checking after 20 or so, then every 7-ish minutes until done with a meat thermometer.
