I love fried chicken but the doctor says "no way". If your doctor says the same, try this version that's baked in the oven, NOT deep-fried ....
Oven-fried chicken – makes 5-6 servings
Ingredients:
• 1 quart buttermilk
• 5-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 bunch each of marjoram and sage (can add thyme if desired)
• Flour
• Breadcrumbs (seasoned ones work well)
• 1 egg
• Salt, black pepper, cayenne
• Pan spray
Directions:
• Pour buttermilk into a bowl; whisk in salt, pepper, and cayenne.
• With the back of a knife, bruise half of the herbs – add to the buttermilk mixture.
• Add chicken breasts to this mixture; tried to get them all submerged. Let sit to marinate for about an hour.
• Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare a sheet pan – I like to cover the pan with foil, and then spray with pan spray (much easier to remove the aluminum foil than to scrub and scrub the pan, later on).
• Trim the rest of the herbs off their stems, and then fine chop them. Add the chopped herbs to the flour.
• Mix some salt, pepper, and cayenne in with the flour as well. Don’t go to heavy with the spices, remember, they are in the marinade as well!
• Have breadcrumbs ready in a bowl.
• Remove the marinated chicken breasts from the buttermilk mix, to a bowl. Remove the bruised herbs and discard. Whisk one egg into the buttermilk mix.
• Get an “assembly line” going. Start with chicken breasts at one end, then the flour, then the buttermilk/egg mix, then the breadcrumbs, then the sprayed sheet pan.
• Work as follows: Dust each chicken breast well with flour, and then dunk it completely into the buttermilk mix. Then roll it completely with breadcrumbs to coat; transfer the coated chicken breast to the sheet pan. Repeat until they’re all ready-to-cook on the sheet pan.
• Bake for about 25-30 minutes (depends how big they are … some chicken breasts these days can range up to 8 oz. each in weight!). When done, let them rest for about 10 minutes, then serve. If you are saving them for later, DON’T wrap them up unless they are COMPLETELY cooled-down, or they’ll steam in their wrappers … a big potential health danger!
• Re-heat them in a medium oven for 20-30 minutes … they won’t be as crispy as when first out of the oven, but will be delicious!
