Best Oven Fried Chicken (no, really!)

Fried Chicken. Sigh. I direct you to my first(and only) slightly sad attempt at frying chicken. I almost got it right, and probably could have eventually gotten a handle on it if I'd kept at it, but I gave up.  I know.  I should be ashamed. I'm Southern after all, and from Kentucky...the Fried Chicken Capitol of the World! But me and fried chicken, we just don't jive. 

So here I am, four and half years after starting what I thought would be a cooking blog and I still can't fry up a chicken and I'm still not much of a cook either. This may explain why my cooking blog has morphed into a random craft/sewing/apron/quilting/ blog where I occasionally share a recipe. 

Which leads me back to the chicken...

I found a recipe for oven "fried" chicken that was a snap to make and tasted great! This recipe comes from the book Eat What You Love by Marlene Koch.

Best Oven Fried Chicken

What you'll need

• 2 large egg whites
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground sage
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 1/4 cups corn flakes
• 1/4 cup plain breadcrumbs
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 lbs skinless chicken

***My changes due to lack of ingrediets: 1/2 cup egg beaters subbed for egg whites; paprika subbed for cayenne; Italian seasoning subbed for sage & thyme; I used precut chicken breast tenders.

What You'll Do

1. Preheat oven to 400. Place a wire rack on top of a baking sheet and spray with cooking spray.
2. In a shallow bowl, whisk together egg whites with  garlic powder, onion powder, caynne pepper, sage and thyme.
3. Place the cereal in a plastic bag and crush thoroughly with a rolling pin. Place in a shallow bowl and mix with  breadcrumbs, pepper, and salt.
4. Place flour in a third shallow bowl.
5. To bread the chicken pieces, first dredge the chicken in th flour to coat. Next, dip each piece of chicken into the egg white mixture, followed by the crumb mixture, making sure to cover all surfaces. repeat until all the chicken is coated.
6. Place the chicken pieces on the prepared rack and bake for 45 minutes, or until the chicken is  golden brown and reaches 180 degrees.

I'll admit to being a bit skeptical of any recipe titled "BEST" anything, but this was good stuff, y'all!  The chicken was juicy inside and crispy outside--just the way I like it! It was truly the best oven fried chicken I've tried....and I'd bet that cooking it on the wire racks is what made the difference. Give it a try and tell me what you think!  And I'd recommend you pick up a copy of this cookbook, especially if you're a cooking novice like I am. It has lots of familiar recipes(without exotic, hard to find ingrediets), made healthier.