Sunday, July 8, 2012

Absolutely Delicious, No. 1, Oven-Fried Chicken Thighs



I've been trying to assemble a recipe that makes crispy, moist chicken without too much added fat.  Instead of lots of oil and butter, to pump up flavor this recipe uses chicken thighs.  Thighs are not as lean as chicken breasts, but have a much superior taste. And since I'm only eating one piece of chicken, I do want it to taste delicious.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

4 large bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
2 packages Saco Powdered Buttermilk
2 cups water
Tabasco Sauce

1 cup King Arthur White Whole Wheat flour
1/3 cup corn meal
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp black pepper
2 Tbs olive oil
cooking spray

The morning before cooking this chicken:

Reconstitute two packages of Powdered Buttermilk with 2 cups of water in a bowl large enough to also hold all the chicken pieces.  Add a few shakes of Tabasco Sauce to the buttermilk and stir to combine.  Add the chicken, cover the bowl, and refrigerate.

When ready to cook:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil.  Place a rack over the sheet, and lightly oil the rack to prevent the chicken from sticking.  I rub the rack with grape seed oil, but you could also spray it with cooking spray.

Combine the flour, cornmeal, salt and pepper in a bowl.  Pour the mixture onto a plate.*  Remove a piece of chicken from the buttermilk marinade.  Allow excess marinade to drip off.  Sprinkle a little salt on the chicken, and then dredge it in the flour mixture.  Repeat with the remaining pieces of chicken.

Put the 2 Tbs of olive oil into a large fry pan and heat over medium.  Brown the chicken in the oil, 2 to 4 minutes a side.  Place the browned chicken on the rack and lightly spray the chicken pieces with cooking spray.  Place the rack into the oven for about 30 minutes or until the chicken is done.

Serve it up!  Yum!!

* You should have more than enough of the flour mixture than necessary to coat four chicken thighs.  When breading chicken, I prefer to have more than I need because running short is extremely aggravating.