When I got married last year, my mother-in-law threw me a wedding shower, and knowing that I love to cook, she asked everyone who attended to bring me one of their favorite family recipes.
My best friend and I sat at my dining room table after the shower, looking through the recipes and commenting on how delicious they all sounded. But I — caught up in the chaos of finalizing wedding plans — glanced at them again long enough to organize them and then shoved the recipe tin in a cabinet above the refrigerator.
Until now. For this month’s Test Kitchen, I decided to go back through my recipes and share one of the dishes that was shared with me. I picked Kim’s golden oven-fried chicken, which she noted on the recipe card has been popular with her family and friends for many years.
It’s going to be popular in our family now, too. I tend to avoid serving chicken as a main dish, just because I feel like I struggle to season it well and make it stand out.
Healthy recipe:Easy, healthy black bean stuffed sweet potato recipe
Kim’s chicken dish changed my mind. It’s extremely flavorful and was certainly the star of the meal.
I had a bag of frozen chicken breasts in my freezer and thawed a few to make the oven-fried chicken. They varied a lot in size, and when I saw the recipe called for three sticks of butter, it just seemed like too much butter for what I was working with. I cut it down to two sticks and still had plenty. (The garlic butter mixture smells just like the dipping sauce you get with pizza, which is how you know the recipe is going to be awesome.)
I only had Italian breadcrumbs, so that’s what I used, and I think it added an extra kick of flavor, especially since I still added the parsley and poultry seasoning that the recipe recommended. Once the chicken breasts were coated and in the pan, I spooned the extra breading mixture on top of them. Then, I followed Kim’s hint of dumping the remaining garlic butter mixture over the coated chicken before baking it.
Cookie recipe:Easy cookie recipe mimics favorite holiday dessert “Christmas crack”
After 45 minutes in the oven, the chicken was perfectly cooked. I made a quick macaroni and cheese, and steamed broccoli as sides for our meal, and my husband and I both spooned the crispy chicken breading and garlic butter onto everything on our plates. The following evening, my husband used the leftovers to make an oven-fried chicken sandwich.
This chicken also would be great for chicken Parmesan; I would just melt a few slices of mozzarella on top during the last few minutes it was in the oven and then serve it with pasta.
OVEN-FRIED CHICKEN RECIPE
Ingredients:
4 skinned chicken breasts
1 1/2 cups butter
1 cup dry bread crumbs
2 tbsps chopped parsley
1/4 tsp poultry seasoning
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
Directions:
1. Use a 13-by-9-inch baking dish. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
2. In a shallow bowl, melt butter with garlic. Mix all other ingredients. Dip both sides of chicken in butter, and then roll in dry mixture. Place in dish. Bake uncovered approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Hint: Pour remaining butter/garlic mixture over chicken before baking.
This has been a favorite in my family and friends. Enjoy!
Courtesy of Kim Pool
