Oven Fried Chicken

Semi success. Can fix next time.

This recipe has been getting traction recently on the internets:

OVEN-FRIED CHICKEN
Serves 4-5

This is the best fried chicken recipe I've tried, bar none. It is quick to prepare and doesn't require watching. The outside is crusty, and the inside moist. The flour mixture can be make up in large amounts and stored to use as needed.

• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup (2/3 stick) butter
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons black pepper 2
• teaspoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 teaspoon dried marjoram (optional)
• 8-9 chicken pieces - legs, thighs, breasts

Place the oil and butter in a shallow cooking pan (a jelly-roll pan is perfect) and put in a preheated 375 F oven to melt. Set aside.

In a large paper sack, combine the flour and seasonings. Roll the chicken pieces, 3 at a time, in the melted oil-butter mixture, then drop them in the sack and shake to cover. Place on a dish or wax paper.

Place chicken in the pan, skin side down.

Bake for 45 minutes. With a spatula, turn over and bake 5 to 10 minutes longer, or until the top crust begins to bubble. Serve hot or cold, but the crust texture is better if chicken is not refrigerated before eating. If you can afford the calories, the pan drippings make an absolutely divine gravy for either mashed potatoes or Baking Powder Biscuits

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My twist on this was to soak chicken in buttermilk on the counter for 30 minutes (just 'cause I had it for making blueberry lemon cake), to marinate and warm up a little, then bread in KFC copycat breading.

This is a post-recipe-first then try, so here we go, testing on 5 thighs. I'm truly curious about this oil-dredge-oil setup instead of flour-egg-bread, but boy, the photos sure looked good from the original post. Looks pretty good in the pan, nice breading and the oil is about shoulder height.

(playing Jeopardy music for the next hour, in your head)

:15 - I smell something

:20 - Smells *really* good, looks really good. Can it be this easy?

I'm sitting here wondering now about how many hours/days I wasted trying to regulate the pan-fry temperature on the electric stove. This makes so much more sense.

:30 - Getting truly excited. It looks kinda perfect.

10 minutes to flip

:45 - SEVERE BUMMER: the skin stuck and tore on 3 of them :(

Otherwise ok but dammit. Not sure how to fix. Maybe use parchment or no-stick foil instead of plain foil.

Oh well. Guess I will still post the fail on the top pic. Grr.

Still good just not purty.

I'll say semi success :) It smells very good cooling.

Taste test: Admittedly I tried the ugliest piece, it was kind of unremarkable. Decent seasoning, evenly cooked and tender. Breading was gloppy. Whoever decided to forego egg wash was insane. I'll try one of the pretty pieces later and will try to be fair.

Taste test 2: Ok, this was good. Next time go nonstick and use egg wash, though.

This is still way easier and more consistent than doing it on the stove.