All food bloggers have those recipes that they think are going to nuts, and no one really seems to notice them.
All food bloggers also have those recipes that get such an incredible response, it’s kind of mind-blowing.
This Oven-Fried Chicken recipe is one those recipes for me.
It’s a recipe we’d made several times before I even started a food blog, and one that I knew I wanted to share with you shortly after I began. We love this recipe. It has great KFC flavour, but it uses lean chicken breasts, has no fatty skin and is still moist and juicy without being greasy.
The response from readers has been outstanding. The recipe has over 52,000 pins, which is nothing for some bloggers out there, but for me? Nothing else has ever come close, keeping in mind that I only started my blog in March 2014.
But with so many people sharing it, and therefore more and more people making it, there are bound to be some that have mixed reviews. Some of you commented that you made it, and you loved it. Awesome! Others commented that they found it a little greasy, or the coating fell off, or had other issues with the recipe.
I had never had any of these issues with the recipe before, but after hearing from so many of you, I wanted to do a little experiment and test some different methods for making oven-fried chicken, to be sure that I was giving you reliable information.
I never want you to feel like the recipes here are completelyunattainable, and I never want you to feel like I’m misleading you. I started this blog because I want to share with you the best food I’ve experienced, and I appreciate your feedback and comments so that I can help you figure out what’s going on when you try something that doesn’t work.
So, I’m done boring you with the mushy stuff.
After reading your comments, I decided I would try 4 different methods.
1. The original recipe as written. I reduced the butter to 3 tbsp because I was only cooking one chicken breast (cut into 3 strips) per baking sheet. If you’re cooking a large amount, you will probably still want 3-5 tbsp.
2. Flour, egg, flour. For this method, I coated my chicken strips in the flour mixture, then dipped in egg, then coated again in the flour mixture. I used 3 tbsp butter, for the same reasons as above.
3. The original recipe, broiled after baking. Because some of you found the chicken soggy, the suggestion to broil it was brought up. I used 3 tbsp butter, for the same reasons as above.
4. Half panko. One reader swapped panko for the flour, and enjoyed the recipe. I swapped half the flour for panko, as I still wanted it to be as close to real fried chicken as possible.
The results:
1. The original recipe as written. Guys, I still love this recipe. The chicken wasn’t soggy and the coating didn’t fall off. I baked exactly 11-12 minutes, flip, bake another 11-12 minutes. I didn’t dry my chicken before coating it in the flour, I just sliced up a thawed chicken breast, dumped it in my ziploc bag and shook it up. Remove the chicken from the pan once it’s done so that it’s not sitting in any excess grease. If you find it a touch greasy, place on a plate on some paper towel to soak up the grease.
2. Flour, egg, flour. This way was also good. I dipped first in the flour mixture, then a beaten egg, and then again in the flour mixture. I did everything else according to the original recipe. I could tell right away that it had a thicker crumb, if that makes sense. After it was baked, I found it had larger chunks of coating, which gave it a nice texture. To be completely honest, the coating stuck really well, but not quite as good as the original because the coating was thicker and slightly heavier. You can see in the pictures though, that both were really well coated.
3. The original recipe, broiled after baking. Still good. I broiled 2 minutes per side after the cooking time, and I found it not as juicy as the other pieces. I checked after 1 minute and found that not much had changed, so I did 2. I think if you’re going to broil it, you’ve got to be careful and reduce the original cooking time. The coating was maybe slightly crispier, but there wasn’t a really noticeable difference in my opinion.
4. Half panko. This was really good. I found it was somewhere in between #1 and #2. The panko gave it a nice texture without becoming crumbly and falling off, but mixing the panko with flour kept that original fried chicken texture.
Overall thoughts:
There are so many different things that will affect your results, it’s hard to know what is going to work best for every person. The weight and colour of your baking sheet, the type of oil or butter you use, the thickness of your chicken, the temperature of your oven, the positioning of your rack, and the list goes on.
That said, I hope that this experiment has helped you to see the different methods available and pick one that you think will work best for you and get you the results you want.
If you are looking for a great oven-fried chicken recipe with a thin and not overwhelming breading, the original recipe is the way to go. If you’re looking for a little more texture, try adding some panko. If you’re looking for maximum breading, try the egg and the double dip.
Overall, they were all good, and not that different. I ate an embarrassing amount of “fried” chicken this morning, because they were all so good. And even after sitting out on the counter for 20 minutes, the texture didn’t really change. They didn’t get soggy and they were still totally irresistible. The seasoning is just out of this world good.
If you have any other questions or thoughts, I would love to hear about them!
*Find the Best Oven-Fried Chicken Recipe here*
