Baked Fried Chicken

I used to cook with ground beef all the time; we hardly ever bought chicken and it was rare to have pork in the house. Now prices are rising and it's cheaper for us to eat chicken all the time and pork every so often. Thankfully chicken is healthier than ground beef so I'm OK that we're eating more chicken and less burger.

The problem is that I'm running out of recipes. I don't want to make anything too complicated or has weird ingredients - I look mostly for slow cooker recipes that call for common household ingredients. I love baking Chinese dishes, but my brother gets tired of it. I also like making healthy dishes, but my brother is too picky to eat healthy all the time. Anything I like making, my family gets tired of too quickly so I'm always on the hunt for new, simple recipes.

This recipe isn't for the slow cooker but it's simple enough. Oven fried chicken. I found the recipe while browsing pinterest and thought, "I love fried chicken! This oughta be yummy!" Mom was a little skeptical because she made oven fried chicken before and said it wasn't that great, but I was determined to try it. It was something new, something supposedly yummy, and something on the healthier side of the "fried food" spectrum.

The recipe calls for chicken breasts to be sliced up and tossed in a mixture of flour, salt, seasoned salt, black pepper, and paprika.

I deviated from the recipe I found when it came to the frying part. The recipe called for butter to be melted on a baking sheet in the oven, and then you fry the chicken by cooking it on the baking sheet for ten minutes, flipping it, and baking for another ten minutes. Since starting to watch what I eat, I don't like to use butter a whole lot. Instead, I opted to use a smaller amount of butter and mix it with olive oil.

I wasn't comfortable frying the chicken in the oven, so I fried it in a pan and then just baked it in the oven until it was done.

The verdict: Kyle ate even more than he thought he was going to. Success! Mom liked the recipe, too, but said it needed more flavoring. I think the problem was that not all of the flour/seasoning mixture got used, so I think I will sprinkle more of the seasonings on the chicken strips when they're frying in the pan.

Baked Fried Chicken (serves 3-4)

Ingredients

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1.5 lbs)
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp seasoning salt (I used Tastefully Simple's Seasoned Salt)
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp paprika
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp olive oil (I love to cook with olive oil, but some people don't like to fry with it. Use your preference!)

Recipe

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place flour, salt, seasoning salt, pepper, and paprika into a large freezer bag (or a bowl). Seal the bag and shake to mix.

Cut chicken breasts into strips and place in freezer bag with flour mixture. Seal bag and shake to coat chicken.

Place butter and oil in a skillet and heat on medium. When butter is melted, place chicken in pan and cook for about one minute per side. (Suggestion: season chicken a bit more when frying, maybe 1/2 tsp for each strip per side.)

Line a baking sheet with foil and spray foil with nonstick cooking spray. Place chicken strips on baking sheet and bake in oven for ten minutes, turning over halfway through. Make sure chicken is cooked thoroughly before serving!

Serve with your favorite sides and enjoy!

Molly

Altered from The Recipe Rebel.