Oven Baked "Fried" Chicken

To go with the Kick-A** Horseradish-Spiked Mash Potatoes post from the other day, I had made baked "fried" chicken.  The original beta-name was chicken-baked chicken (as in chicken-fried steak, but made with chicken) ...

Handsome hand, courtesy of theHubby.

















... but for some reason, everyone I tried the name on quickly backed away from me.  So I went with the more boring name, which upon reflection offsets the wacky mashed potato title.

Normally I just use regular ol' skinless, boneless breasts and pound them senseless to 1) make them thinner, 2)make them of uniform thickness to allow even cooking, and 2)bashing breaks up the muscle fibers, making them more tender.  But lately, the family-sized packages of formerly 6 skinless, boneless chicken at the local Try-n-Save now consists of 3 humongously thick breasts of irregular thicknesses, which makes slicing through horizontally a bit challenging.  I really should write a strongly worded letter demanding they go back to the old way of packaging the poultry.  In the meantime, for just about 10 cents/pound more, I was able to purchase pre-thinly sliced breasts and save time and sanity.

Oven Baked "Fried" Chicken
Yield: 8 servings

1 Tbl. vegetable oil
1 egg
1 Tbl. water
1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. dried basil or parsley
1 tsp. paprika
2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
8 skinless, boneless thinly sliced (or pounded flat) chicken breasts
Butter-flavored cooking spray

Preheat oven to 375F.   Grease a large shallow-rimed baking sheet with the oil.

Lightly whisk egg and water together in a shallow dish.  Whisk together flour with the spices in a shallow pan.

Working with one breast at a time, cover with the dry mixture.  Lightly shake off excess coating, then dip into the egg mixture. Allow excess egg to drip off, then cover a second time with the dry mixture.  Arrange breasts in a single layer on prepared baking sheet.

Lightly spritz breasts evenly with the cooking spray.  Place pan in preheated oven.  Bake for 40-45 minutes or until coating is golden and juices run clear when breast is pierced with the tip of a knife.

Favorite green veggie plated later.














Serve hot, preferably alongside mashed potatoes and your favorite green veggie.

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