Spicy Oven-Fried Chicken

Fried Chicken! One of my all time favorite foods. I grew up on chicken fried in my mom's well seasoned iron skillet. Yes, I make traditional fried chicken every once in a while, but baking it in the oven is a bit healthier and not nearly as messy...all that greasy flying everywhere. I found this in my new cookbook, Bon Appetit, Fast, Easy, Fresh. Most oven fried chicken recipes use boneless skinless chicken, but my favorite part of fried chicken is the crispy skin. This recipe uses bone-in, skin-on chicken, the tastiest kind!

This is easy, but it does take a bit of time. The first step is to marinate the chicken in the buttermilk recipe. If you don't have buttermilk, I didn't, you can make an excellent substitute by adding 1 TB of white vinegar or lemon juice to milk. Don't worry about the amount of hot sauce. This chicken isn't that spicy. You should marinate for at least 3 hours, but you can marinate overnight. So you could put it together the night before and cook for dinner the next day. Next you coat the chicken in your bread crumb topping and let it sit on a rack for 30 minutes before you put it in the oven. Finally, just bake at 425 degrees for 50 minutes. Voila, crispy chicken that's almost as good as really fried!

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons hot pepper sauce

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 large onion, sliced

12 chicken pieces (breasts, thighs and drumsticks) with skin and bones

1 cup dry unseasoned breadcrumbs

1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup all purpose flour

2 teaspoons dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions

Whisk buttermilk, oil, hot pepper sauce, mustard, garlic, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in large bowl to blend well. Add onion, then chicken and turn to coat. Cover; chill at least 3 hours or up to 1 day, turning chicken occasionally.

Place racks on 2 large rimmed baking sheets. Whisk breadcrumbs, cheese, flour, thyme, paprika, cayenne and 1 teaspoon salt in large baking dish to blend. Remove chicken from marinade, allowing excess to drip off. Add chicken to breadcrumb mixture and turn to coat completely. Arrange chicken, skin side up, on racks on baking sheets. Let stand 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425°F. Drizzle butter over chicken. Bake until crisp, golden and cooked through, about 50 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.