Today I’m making an easy main dish for a family meal. It is a healthy alternative to real fried chicken because this version is baked. Not that I don’t like real fried chicken – I love it – but we need choices. Sometimes for our own good, we need to choose baking over frying. I used boneless, skinless chicken breast for this recipe, but you might want to use drumsticks if you have children who like them.
Oven Fried Chicken
1 1/4 cups finely crushed saltine crackers or rich round crackers (about 35)
1 beaten egg
3 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 to 2 pounds boneless chicken
2 tablespoons butter, melted
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Prepare a baking pan by covering with aluminum foil, then spraying the foil with nonstick cooking spray.
Start with a pack of saltine crackers.
Put the crackers in the bowl of a food processor.
Process until all crackers are finely crushed.
Now that the crackers are crushed and ready, let’s assemble the rest of the ingredients that we will be using to make the chicken coating for this recipe.
We will be using an egg, milk, paprika, and black pepper along with the crushed crackers.
In a small bowl, combine 1 egg and 3 tablespoons milk.
In another bowl, combine crushed crackers, 1/2 teaspoon paprika, and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Landon did the measuring for this step.
He then stirred the spices into the crushed crackers.
The next step is to prepare the chicken.
I had some thick boneless chicken breasts, so I cut them in half to make smaller pieces.
Then each piece of chicken should be dipped into the egg/milk mixture, then into the crushed cracker mixture . . .
. . . then placed on the prepared pan.
Then melt 2 tablespoons butter and drizzle over the chicken pieces.
Bake, uncovered, in preheated 375 degree F oven for 45 to 55 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Do not turn chicken pieces while baking.
The small, boneless pieces that I baked took 45 minutes to cook. Thicker pieces, or pieces with bone will take longer. Set the timer for the shorter baking time and check, then add time if needed.
This chicken is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.
And, an extra benefit to this recipe is the clean up. After we finished dinner and put away the leftovers, this is what the baking pan looked like.
Until I removed the dirty foil to throw it away.
The pan was shiny and clean, not a drop of grease. I like to cook. I like to eat. I hate dirty dishes.
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