This Oven Fried Chicken is sure to be one of your favorite go-to recipes because of it’s crispiness, it’s juiciness and it’s flavor.
Oven fried chicken has been my favorite chicken recipe since I first discovered it in Rosie Daily’s cookbook, “In the Kitchen with Rosie”. If you don’t know who she is, she was a personal chef for Oprah and cooked incredibly healthy recipes, like her Unfried Chicken. It was sooo good.
Since then I’ve made a lot of unfried recipes like my Crispy Baked Wings.
This Oven Fried Chicken recipe is really a combination of the Unfried versions of my recipes, but adding in the delicious herbs and spices of Colonel Sanders makes it perfect. I mean, who doesn’t like the flavor of KFC?
His original recipe ingredients is still a highly kept secret, but I did read an article that said he actually wrote down his ingredients on one of his documents that has been verified. Hmmm. So, I thought I’d give it a try.
The interesting thing is that he added an ingredient that I would never have thought would be in the special KFC formula – ginger.
Ginger! Who knew?
After giving it a try, my husband said, “Yep, that’s it.” Although I made it a healthier version with one exception, I decided to use chicken thighs instead of breasts this time because they do have a richer flavor.
Ingredients for Oven Fried Chicken
- Chicken Thighs: The Star of the Show
- Fat free milk: To make the baked chicken juicy
- Flour: To form a crust
- Salt: Just a touch
- Pepper: For spiciness
- Oregano: For a slight taste of sweet mint
- Thyme: For a slight lemony tastes
- Basil: For a pepper, anise and slight mint flavor
- Dried Mustard: For a tang
- Smoked Paprika: Just a bit for a hint of smokiness
- Garlic Powder: For a pungent, rich flavor
- Ginger: For a peppery, spicy flavor
- Butter: For richness and to add to crispness
How to Make Oven Fried Chicken
First, preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.
Next, add chicken and milk to a zip lock bag. Zip it tightly and refrigerate for 30 minutes or longer. Just as an extra safety caution I first add the package to a bowl just in case it drips.
Then just mix the flour with salt, pepper, oregano, thyme, basil, dried mustard, smoked paprika, garlic powder and ginger in a gallon size zip lock bag. Gotta love those zip lock bags. So good for so many reasons.
Next, remove the chicken from the refrigerator and discard the milk. Then add the chicken to the bag with the flour mixture, zip it tightly closed and shake it to evenly coat the chicken on all sides.
Then add butter to a microwave safe bowl and heat 30 seconds on high until melted. To save this step, you can also use Ghee. I love ghee and use it often. The beauty of ghee over regular butter is that it has a higher cooking point so you can use butter when you’re sautéing or frying with less worry about burning. But in this baked chicken recipe, butter is just fine.
Pour the butter into a baking dish and add the floured chicken then turn the chicken to coat each side with butter.
Place the dish in the oven and bake 30 minutes. Then turn chicken over and bake another 25 minutes until chicken registers 165 degrees on a meat thermometer. It should be beautifully browned at this point. Be sure and check the temperature with a meat thermometer to be sure the chicken registers 165 degrees.
Finally serve this chicken hot – the way the Colonel did…and still deliciously does.
Notes on the Ingredients
I used Almond milk because it’s a bit thicker. But you can certainly use regular milk.
The addition of Smoked Paprika is really optional. I added it because I really like the smoked taste, although it wasn’t in the Colonel’s original recipe.
The flour I used was Wondra. It’s a fine flour and coats the chicken more evenly, but you can substitute regular flour.
Oven Fried Chicken
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F
- Add chicken and milk to a zip lock bag and zip tightly. Regrigerate 30 minutes.
- In a gallon zip lock bag add flour, salt, pepper, oregano, thyme, basil, mustard, smoked paprika, garlic powder and ginger. Then add drained chicken to the bag, zip it tightly and shake until chicken is evenly coated.
- Add ghee to a baking dish. Remove chicken from the zip lock bag and add it to the baking dish. Turn the chicken and coat both sides with the butter.
- Place chicken in the oven and bake 30 minutes. Then turn the chicken over and bake another 25 minutes until chicken registers 165 degrees on a meat thermometer.
- Serve hot.
Nutrition
If you liked this recipe, please leave a comment below and be sure and pin it on Pinterest!
For Similar Recipes: