Buttermilk Baked Chicken

I love fried chicken. I adore fried chicken. I covet fried chicken. I (insert every possible praise word here) fried chicken. What I hate is the mess. Have you seen what fried chicken does to your stove??!! I know, so what's a little grease, when the output is glorious crunchy chicken. I don't care. I've blogged before on how much I love my stove. It's black and stainless, which is all cool looking until it gets a smidgen of grease on it. I mean every little drop shows on this stove. So, anyway, no fried chicken is being made on this stove, I don't care if I am in the south.

I've seen several recipes for baked chicken, and truth be told, I wasn't really expecting much from a baked instead of fried chicken recipe. So, when I saw the recipe for Buttermilk Baked Chicken in Everyday Food: Great Food Fast, it sounded (and looked) good. Are you people sick yet of me talking about this book? I know, you'd think Martha was giving me a commission, but she's not, it's just pure, unadulterated cookbook love. The recipe can also be found online.

Buttermilk Baked Chicken
From Everyday Food
Serves 4

Vegetable oil, for baking sheet
8 slices white bread
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon hot-pepper sauce
Salt and pepper
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (2 1/2 ounces)
1 teaspoon dried thyme
4 pounds chicken parts (preferably legs, thighs, and wings), rinsed and patted dry

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Generously rub a baking sheet with oil (I baked mine on parchment paper). In a food processor, pulse the bread until it turns into coarse crumbs.

2. In a large bowl, stir together the buttermilk, hot-pepper sauce, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. In a separate bowl, mix the breadcrumbs, Parmesan, thyme, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper.

3. Place the chicken in the buttermilk mixture, turning to coat evenly. Working with one piece at a time, remove chicken from liquid, letting excess drip back into bowl; dredge in the breadcrumb mixture, turning to coat evenly. Place coated chicken pieces on prepared baking sheet.

4. Bake until chicken is golden brown, about 35 minutes.

Crisping the Chicken: Leave enough space between the chicken pieces so that they crisp evenly all the way around.

This was really good. It wasn't fried chicken, but it had the essence of fried chicken. There was the contrast of the crispy coating and the soft, chewy and very moist chicken inside. This is definitely a repeater. This was really quick to come together, perfect for a weeknight. When ever my bread starts to get stale, I either cube it, or process it into bread crumbs, both of which are stored in the freezer. So, I always have a bag of bread crumbs in my freezer, making this even easier.

Since I've had this recipe bookmarked forever, it is perfect for my entry for Bookmarked Recipes, hosted by Ruth at Ruth's Kitchen Experiments.