Healthy fried chicken
Posted on: February 22, 2010
- In: Life
- 9 Comments
Healthy fried chicken? Isn’t that an oxymoron? Not when you oven fry it!
In an effort to make a staple comfort food healthy, I decided to oven fry our chicken. Essentially, you batter the chicken like normal, but instead of frying it in oil, you bake it. Yes, I am sure some good ole’ Southern mama is about ready to say “bless your heart” as she shakes her head at me.
First, take your raw chicken and beat it. You heard me right. Beat it. You want to tenderize the chicken to ensure it cooks through. This is especially true when you fry it.
Whisk eggs in a bowl. A trick my mom taught me is to add milk to your eggs to make the mixture go further.
Dip chicken in egg mixture.
Spread flour on a flat surface for coating chicken. I added wheat germ (for some bonus “health”) and cayenne pepper (for a kick) to my flour.
Throughly coat chicken on both sides.
Place chicken on a pan and cook at 350* for 20 minutes per side (total of 40 minutes).
The finished product:
To be honest, the breading didn’t turn out quite how I’d like. A lot of it stayed on the pan, and the chicken didn’t really have a “fried” look. Everyone cheerfully ate it and the cayenne pepper was a nice touch. However, I’m not sold on oven frying over oil frying. Mostly because, I just love fried chicken.
I served this meal with some mashed potatoes, green beans and my favorite easy biscuits. While it’s a bit time consuming (and even more so if you fry the chicken) it’s a pretty simple recipe and a “must” for every good Southern woman.
More pictures of my little helpers. I’m not quite sure why Julia’s telling Hannah to “be quiet”. Maybe because Hannah kept laughing hysterically at her.
And this is what Hannah does when I try pushing her past her 3-hour nursing limit. She tries eating anything she can grab.
9 Responses to "Healthy fried chicken"
February 22, 2010 at 10:17 am
So fun! At the women’s conference this last weekend at Parkview, the speaker, Sandra Aldrich, was from Kentucky. She said that if a Southern woman with grey hair ever says, “bless her heart,” or “God love her” then know she is about to say something wicked 🙂 She was fantastic and spoke on encouragement! I thought often of my mother-in-law, from Virginia.
February 22, 2010 at 11:30 am
Here are some tips from some radio expert I heard the other day. Let your chicken sit out for a bit so it isn’t so cold. Also, add corn starch to your flour since the flour used in the more northern states tends to be less starchy (and thus falls off the chicken easier). I wish I would have written down the other tips she said! I also personally like using corn flakes to make it a crunchy.
February 22, 2010 at 12:04 pm
Perfect!! The kids get to each choose a main dish throughout our week and this morning when making our list Max wanted something, anything, I could make with mashed potatoes on the side. I ran through a gamut of suggestions and he jumped on fried chicken but then I did a double take because I was immediately thinking, “How does one make healthy fried chicken?” Thanks SO much!
February 22, 2010 at 4:04 pm
crushed corn flakes make a great topping also. you’re such a good Mama
February 23, 2010 at 4:06 pm
Hi Sarah! It’s Adam in STL. I have been making ‘healthy oven fried chicken’ for awhile now using 2 different menthods. The first is starting with the flour, then the egg mixture, then bread crumbs (where you can add all kinds of crazy stuff: oats, cheese, spices…). Then bake as usual.
The other is to use mustard instead of egg (even healthier and low-cal). Coat the chicken in mustard (whatever kind you want), then coat in a hearty mixture of oats, bread crumbs, cheese, whatever. Then bake. It doesn’t stay on as well as the first method, but cuts even more calories. The mustard still gives it lots of flavor. Just a thought. 🙂
Hoping we can come up and visit sometime soon!
February 23, 2010 at 4:12 pm
Hey Adam! You had me at mustard. Mmmm….
When you make it up this way, let me know. I’d love to finally see you and Leigh!
February 24, 2010 at 8:02 pm
If you dip it in flour, then in egg mixture, then in flour again, and then let it sit for a few minutes, it really sticks much better. Breadcrumbs are also a good addition! We make a sort-of battered chicken like this with a mixture of pecan pieces and breadcrumbs as the breading–YUM!! With the egg, we mix in stone-ground mustard. It’s super tasty.
A Wife Loved Like The Church 
February 22, 2010 at 10:02 am
Have you ever tried oven fried chicken with bread crumbs? That’s how I do mine. The coating is more crunchy like it is when you fry. I’ve only used store-bought bread crumbs, haven’t tried it with the ones I make from the heels of the bread. I think it helps too if you cook the chicken for a shorter time at a higher temp, like maybe 25 minutes total at 400 or something. I can’t remember.
February 23, 2010 at 4:13 pm
Alicia – I’ve never tried the bread crumbs, but had heard once to do that. Maybe next time I make this I’ll do that.