Spare Spoons Kitchen
Oven Fried Chicken
Fried-chicken crunch without the splatter — chicken dredged and baked in a pan of butter until the coating goes deep golden and crisp. Less mess, no pot of hot oil to babysit; the only thermometer goes in the meat.
Ingredients
Easier, if you like
- Buy the chicken already cut up — a pack of bone-in thighs or a "cut-up fryer" from the meat case skips breaking down a whole bird.
- Line the pan with foil first (then add the butter) for near-zero cleanup.
Method
Cook's notes
Cast iron is ideal — it holds heat and crisps the bottom — but any metal baking pan works. Avoid glass, which doesn't brown as well.
Skin-side down for the first half so the coating sets in the butter, then flip. Don't crowd the pan; pieces need space or they steam instead of crisping.
Seasoning salt (Lawry's) in place of the paprika is Betty's alternative — a little more savory depth.
All pieces of one kind — all thighs, or all drumsticks — cook more evenly than a mix of white and dark meat.
Make it gluten-free
Gluten-free: dredge in a cup-for-cup gluten-free flour blend, or fine rice flour — it crisps up much the same. Everything else in the recipe is already gluten-free.
See Betty’s original page
