I absolutely love fried chicken. I rarely have it out so I do the next best thing. I re-create a healthy fried chicken recipe at home. You can even make this healthier by removing the skin first but I have to admit that I do not.
A few years ago I discovered another way to lighten this recipe. Instead of breading the entire piece of chicken, I only bread the top. The breading on the underside only absorbs the fat anyway and who wants to eat that? This is really easy to prepare but takes about 45 minutes to an hour to cook so it may not be a great weeknight meal depending on your situation.
I always buy chicken legs or thighs on sale and freeze them so that I can have them any time I want. This is another easy clean-up recipe since the pan I use to cook the chicken is lined with foil. You can prepare this recipe ahead and refrigerate until you are ready to bake. Just let it sit out for about 30 minutes to take the chill off.
Oven Fried Chicken
Ingredients
- 4 chicken legs cut at the joint or 8 chicken thighs
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp hot sauce I use Franks
- 1 cup dried bread crumbs
- 1 tsp dried herbs I use herbes de provence
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan or romano cheese
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 375 degrees F.
- Line a shallow pan big enough to hold the chicken in a single layer with 2 layers of foil.
- Cut as much excess fat off of the chicken as you can. You can remove the skin if you want but I don't.
- Rinse and dry the chicken well.
- Salt and pepper the underside of the chicken pieces (I only put crumbs on the top side)
- Whisk the egg and the hot sauce together.
- Combine bread crumbs, cheese, herbs, garlic powder, salt and pepper.
- Put the top part of the chicken piece (skin side) in the flour and shake off excess.
- Then put the floured side in the egg mixture.
- Finally put it in the breadcrumbs and place on the prepared pan breaded side up.
- Bake for about 45 minutes to an hour depending on the size of the chicken parts.
- Enjoy!
