Baked fried chicken revisited

OK, I know I’ve written about this before, but I have improved a little on the method and have found a few spices that work even a little better and most importantly, I have a picture so you can SEE how good this is.

Baked Fried Paprika Spiced Chicken

First get about a quarter of a loaf of old dried out bread. Break it up into small chunks (I put it in a paper bag and smash it a few times with something very hard and heavy like my head) and blend it in the blender to make breadcrumbs. Then mix in about two tablespoons of herbs de provence, a tablespoon of garlic powder, a tablespoon of salt and a tablespoon of ground pepper. Remove the skin if you can from the chicken pieces (I don’t bother to do this on wings). Then cut deep slashes to the bone in each piece of chicken. Put the chicken pieces in a bowl and sprinkle two teaspoons of smoked paprika all over them and rub it in thoroughly. You’ll have to wash your hands afterward – wouldn’t want to get any of that spiced smoked paprika in your eye if you rubbed it inadvertently…I mean wouldn’t want to get any raw, salmonella laden chicken juices in your eye. Dump on one cup of buttermilk. Mix it in thoroughly so each piece is coated, even into the slashes. Let it sit in the fridge for an hour.

Turn the oven on to 400 degrees. Get out enough baking sheets to hold the chicken. Put a little oil on each of them to thinly coat the bottom. Put the breadcrumb mixture in a bowl. One at a time take each piece of chicken and roll it in the crumb mixture until coated thoroughly, then put them on the tray in a single layer. Drizzle or spray a small amount of oil on top of each piece. Bake for 15 minutes until the bottom is turning brown. Turn each piece over and bake for another 15 to twenty minutes. Check for doneness. If not done, turn again and bake for another ten minutes. Repeat until done.

Superb hot. Good cold.