Even with the light and crispy batter on the chicken, I could not justify the extra effort needed to clean up the flour and crumbs after the preparation process.
Below are some links to more details, including photos:
My Story
I wanted to make crispy bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs without having to fry them in a container of oil. To help with this, I searched for a recipe using the oven.
Inspiring Recipe
What I found was an easy recipe from Allrecipes.com called Oven-“Fried” Chicken Thighs.
First Try
I had almost all the ingredients at home, so I just needed to buy one item. Before getting started, I purchased a bag of panko bread crumbs.
Ingredients to Use
Based on 10 chicken thighs, I increased the remaining ingredients on the recipe as listed below:
Flour mixture
- 3 1/3 cups of all-purpose flour
- 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon of garlic powder
Panko mixture
- 3 1/3 cups of panko bread crumbs
- 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon of garlic powder
5 large eggs
In addition, I had salt for the above mixtures, along with rainbow pepper, which I substituted for the black pepper.
Steps to Prepare
The directions in the recipe were straightforward, so I followed all the steps, except for a little tweaking to the first one and an addition at the end.
In Step 1, I added a baking sheet since I needed more room for the chicken thighs. Also, instead of lining the baking pan and baking sheet with parchment paper, I used foil since that’s what I had at home.
At the end, I added some ground pink salt and rainbow pepper on top of the chicken, since I wasn’t sure that I had added enough salt and pepper in the batter.
Time to Eat
After the chicken pieces were plated, I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into the crispy thighs!
Recipe Rating
Below were the results of the recipe after the first try:
| # of Ingredients | Effort | $ / Serving | Try Again? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 * |  | |  |
Despite adding the extra salt and pepper after the chicken was done, it didn’t have much taste on the inside or outside. Also, some of batter closer to the meat was mushy.
Second Try
During the second round, I wanted to primarily add more flavor to the chicken and secondarily try to keep the batter dry.
Ingredients to Use
In an attempt to boost the taste in the chicken, I planned to marinate the thighs first using a modified version of the Baked Chicken Wings recipe, also from Allrecipes.com, that I used before.
Since I wasn’t sure how much of each ingredient to use to marinate with, I just tried doubling the original recipe as follows:
- 6 tablespoons of olive oil
- 6 cloves of garlic
- 4 teaspoons of chili powder
- 2 teaspoons of garlic powder
Going back to the original chicken thigh recipe, I had 8 pieces to work with this time, so the amount for the ingredients that had to be modified were as follows:
Flour mixture
- 2 2/3 cups of all-purpose flour (A new brand replaced the one that was previously used up.)
Panko mixture
- 2 2/3 cups of panko bread crumbs
4 large eggs
All the other ingredients remained the same as before.
Steps to Prepare
For the steps during the second attempt, I repeated what I did during the first try, after marinating the thighs. However, I didn’t add any salt or pepper after the chicken was done in the oven.
Time to Eat
With the addition of the marinade, I had higher hopes of a better outcome.
Recipe Rating
Below are the results of the recipe from the second attempt:
| # of Ingredients | Effort | $ / Serving | Try Again? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 * | | | |
The batter didn’t have any noticeable mushiness this time around. Instead, it was light and crispy. Also, though the chicken wasn’t as bland, it still needed to be saltier. Lastly, since I didn’t get any tasty chicken out of the messy preparation, I don’t plan on reusing this recipe.
Even if I don’t anticipate trying this recipe in the future, one could still improve it with the following action:
Continuous Improvement
- Experiment with how much salt to add to the flour and panko batter mixtures.
Before trying this oven-fried chicken recipe, I read some of the comments regarding the chicken’s flavor. Instead of just going through with the recipe as written during the first try, I learned the following lesson:
Lesson for Dumber Self
- Do some research to see if the feedback from others make sense, so I could learn from their experience without going through an unnecessary process myself.
What will you do now?
Next Step for You
- Share your favorite “fried” chicken oven recipe?
- Share a way to bread chicken that requires little clean-up?
- Read another post on this site? (Go to the menu at the top of the page.)
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