Southern oven unfried chicken

I had some extra buttermilk, leftover from making Irish soda bread, that I wanted to put to good use. I also recently came across two recipes for buttermilk baked chicken…what perfect timing! One of the recipes used bone-in chicken breasts and the other used boneless. I made them both, and no big surprise, the boneless chicken won. It was easier to marinate and took less time to cook. 

With the hot sauce and cayenne pepper, this has a little kick. Feel free to omit either or both if you’d like it a little milder. Just a warning, the marinade with the hot sauce looks a little bit like Pepto!

Marinating the chicken

I had the chicken for dinner with some roasted potatoes and asparagus. I also sliced up some leftovers and put it on a salad for lunch.

Southern oven unfried chicken
Serves: 4-6
Source: Art Smith via People magazine, March 4, 2013

Ingredients
1 cup buttermilk
1 Tbsp hot sauce
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 1/2 cups whole wheat or panko bread crumbs
3 Tbsp Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 tsp onion powder
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp paprika
Olive oil spray

Directions
1. In a bowl, combine buttermilk and hot sauce. Add the chicken and allow it to marinate in the refrigerator at least 1 hour.
2. Combine bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper, cayenne pepper and paprika in a gallon-size Ziploc bag.
3. Remove chicken from the marinade and place in the bag. Shake well, until chicken is evenly coated. Lay chicken on lightly oiled baking sheet and chill uncovered for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. 
4. Remove chicken from refrigerator and lightly coat with olive oil spray. Bake 15-20 minutes, turn over and bake 15-20 minutes more or until done.

Dinner is served!