Oven-baked fried chicken
This is a pretty flexible recipe - so please take the amounts with a large grain of salt, as I can't remember the last time I actually measured anything in it...
Ingredients:
4 pieces of boneless, skinless chicken (breasts or thighs work best)
1 sleeve crackers (Ritz, Townhouse, or equivalent)
1/4 cup Parmesan or other dry cheese
1/4 cup butter or margarine
salt, pepper, and any other desired spices to taste (if using salted crackers, avoid additional salt)
Place the crackers in a quart-sized baggie (the cheap top-tie kind work fine) and mash to crumbs (a rolling pin or can of vegetables works well for this). Be sure to fold the edge of the bag over first or you'll have crumbs everywhere. Add Parmesan; hold the top of the bag closed and shake to mix thoroughly.
Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl large enough to dip the chicken pieces into.
One piece at a time, dip the chicken into the butter to coat and then place in the bag; shake to coat. Place each coated piece into a baking dish, and bake uncovered at 350 F for 30 minutes or until chicken is completely cooked.
Variations:
Instead of crackers, use any of the following:
- potato chips (a great way to dispose of stale chips from the bottom of the bag)
- Frosted Flakes (this creates a nice glaze - skip the Parmesan with this one)
- Chex cereal, any variety
- Bread crumbs
- Matzo meal
Instead of Parmesan, use any of the following:
- other dried, grated cheese
- onion soup mix
- any other dried seasoning mix you like with chicken
You can use chicken with the skin on if you want, but then all the coating sticks to the skin, and sometimes the chicken dries out, especially if the skin doesn't cover the chicken completely.
If you don't have a bag, or don't want to use one, you can also mix the dry ingredients in a bowl, sprinkle ~1/2 on the bottom of a baking pan, place chicken on top, and the cover with the other 1/2 of the dry mix; drizzle with butter. You can omit the butter if you want, but then the coating doesn't really stick to the chicken well.