'Fried' chicken in the oven

Jenise,
Tried your recipe for 'fried' chicken in the oven this evening with a couple of minor additions (tossed some Tabasco Chipotle and some crushed red chilli flakes into the mustard/olive oil/water rub for some added heat). It came out brilliantly - really flavourful, meat quite tender (I used boneless thighs, although trimmed away a lot of the fat on the inside and outside) and I'll definitely be playing around with this a bit more. Thanks again!

[Jenise]

Salil, glad it worked out for you. Beats all the grease and splatter of a hot stove, doesn't it, and it comes out just as crisp and evenly cooked.

How do I find this recipe? I searched but couldn't find it.

How do I find this recipe? I searched but couldn't find it.

Might this be the one you want?



Topic: RC: Wine-apple-herb oven-fried chicken/best FC I ever made
Author: Jenise
Date: Tue May 15 09:25:01 2001
About 20 years ago, I made some fried chicken from a recipe in the LA Times Home Magazine supplement. It was wonderful, very crisp and unusually elegant in its wine-apple-herb flavor, but I lost the recipe and never made it again. As best I recall it, in that preparation, the chicken was marinated in wine and actually cooked with apple juice in the pan. Superb results, but one heckuva mess to clean up after the apple juice literally turned to caramel in the bottom of the pan.

Driving past a KFC the other day, I suddenly remembered that chicken and imagined just how to recreate it as an oven version. When I got home, I pulled a bag of chicken wings out of the freezer and went to work.

The result was, as my title promises, the best fried chicken I''ve ever had. The chicken absorbs enough apple juice to approximate the caramelization effect, the corn meal makes a very tasty crust, and the wine and herbs give the chicken a very sophisticated flavor.

The following recipe has a lot of steps, the chicken isn''t hard to make but you must allow yourself enough time to follow all the steps. That it cooks in the oven is a big bonus--no slaving over a hot stove, no stove mess to clean up later!

1. Marinate the chicken for 4-8 hours:

2 dozen chicken wing drummettes
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 cups apple juice
2 tsp dried dill
2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp salt
2 tablespoons EVOO

2. About an hour and a half before dinner, remove chicken from marinade and coat well with a mixture of:

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup corn meal
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper

3. Place coated chicken on a wire rack to "dry". This sets your crust. Leave for about 30-45 minutes.

4. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Put sheet pan in oven to heat up, then add 3 tblsp. corn or olive oil, and set chicken in oven, best/top side down. Place in oven. Leave rack out, you're going to use it again.

5. After 20-25 minutes, chicken should be done on the first side. Check and decide if now's the time to turn. If it is, turn. DO NOT TURN CHICKEN MORE THAN ONCE OR YOU'LL TOTALLY FUTZ UP THE CRUST. Finish cooking, about ten minutes.

6. When chicken''s done, remove and set on wire rack to rest for five to ten minutes, then serve.

Thanks!! Is there any reason why you couldn't use breasts, legs, thighs?

Thanks!! Is there any reason why you couldn't use breasts, legs, thighs?

I see no reason...that is what I am going to do. I'm wondering since the recipe called for chicken wings that it may be an appetizer recipe...the type many folks serve during big football games. I convert many appetizer recipes into meals.
I'm sure Jenise will come in on this soon, and she may have some suggestions for you.

Interesting recipe Karen, although I used a different method that Jenise PMed me. If she doesn't mind me sharing - several tablespoons of mustard (plus some extras from my end; a few spoons of Tabasco Chipotle, black pepper and herbs) were mixed with a little olive oil and water in a bowl. The chicken pieces were slathered in that mixture for a bit more than an hour, then drenched in a 50/50 mixture of cornmeal and regular white flour seasoned with salt and pepper. Chicken was left to stand in that mixture for another 30 minutes (so the coating adhered), then baked on one side at 400F for 30 minutes/until browning, then turned over and baked on the other side for 15 minutes at the same temperature.

[Jenise]

Interesting recipe Karen, although I used a different method that Jenise PMed me. If she doesn't mind me sharing - several tablespoons of mustard (plus some extras from my end; a few spoons of Tabasco Chipotle, black pepper and herbs) were mixed with a little olive oil and water in a bowl. The chicken pieces were slathered in that mixture for a bit more than an hour, then drenched in a 50/50 mixture of cornmeal and regular white flour seasoned with salt and pepper. Chicken was left to stand in that mixture for another 30 minutes (so the coating adhered), then baked on one side at 400F for 30 minutes/until browning, then turned over and baked on the other side for 15 minutes at the same temperature.

Share away! But yes, that's essentially it. Heaping spoonfulls of mustard, maybe half a cup for one whole chicken, or a litte more, enough to create a thick coating on all pieces plus just a little water or white wine to loosen it up, a tablespoon or two plus a few tablespoons of olive oil to put back some fat. I typically put an herb in with the mustard--tarragon, herbs de Provence or dried thyme. Once coated the chicken should be placed on a wire rack so the bottoms don't sweat, then baked best side down first on an oiled cookie sheet and the rest as Salil describes.