Nailed It or Failed It: Crispy chicken
I’d love to find an oven fried chicken recipe that ends up with a crunchy crust.
There are several of these type recipes that I’ve clipped out of magazines or written down over the years.
Once again, we were going to have chicken for supper, and I decided to try one more oven fried chicken recipe to see how it would turn out.
All I had to do was flip through the recipes in my “chicken” folder and find one I wanted to try.
Today’s recipe was from the October 2006 issue of Home Cooking.
It looked simple enough, and I had some crisp rice cereal in the cabinet leftover from making treats for my grandkids.
When I got home, I cleaned each breast and cut all of them into strips.
Next, all I had to do was throw a few ingredients together, and we’d have supper in no time.
I poured some of the rice cereal into a baggie and pounded it with a rolling pin until I crushed it.
I poured the crumbs into a bowl and added the flour, salt, thyme and poultry seasoning.
I stirred the mixture then melted some butter in another bowl.
I turned the oven on to heat and lined a sheet pan with foil for easy cleaning.
After dipping each piece of chicken into the butter and the crumbs, I placed them on the baking sheet, drizzled the remaining butter over them and placed the pan in the oven.
While the chicken cooked, I began cleaning up the kitchen and setting the table.
When Brad arrived home, we were ready to eat.
We prayed, filled our plates and began.
The chicken was tender and had a delicious flavor; however, as usual, it wasn’t crunchy like I’d hoped.
The bottom of each piece was crunchy, but the top wasn’t.
Brad said it wasn’t anything special and I‘m sorry to say I had to agree.
I nailed this recipe, but it failed in the crunchy oven-fried chicken category.
I already have several recipes of this type, so I’m not keeping this one.
Even though it was pretty good and it was straightforward to prepare, it wasn’t that special.
I’ll have to continue my quest for the perfect oven fried chicken recipe.
Maybe one day I’ll find it.
Sarah Condley is an amateur baker and chef who is compiling a cookbook of her favorite recipes.
Crispy chicken
1 1/2 cups coarsely crushed, crisp rice cereal
2 Tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/4 cup butter, melted
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease an 11 x 7 x 2-inch baking pan.
In a shallow bowl, combine cereal, flour, salt, thyme, and poultry seasoning. Place butter in another bowl. Dip chicken in butter, then in cereal mixture. Place in prepared banking pan. Drizzle with remaining butter. Bake, uncovered, for 20 to 25 minutes or until juices run clear. Serves 4.