Oven-Fried Chicken

Everyone loves fried chicken. Who wants to mess with all that grease and then when your done the chicken is all grease yuk!  I've never made fried chicken for that reason, then I came along a recipe called oven-fried chicken (Ina Garten) that fries the chicken at first then you place in the oven, which makes in crisp on the outside and juice and tender on the inside. 

- 1 chicken ( 3 pounds or so ) cut into eight pieces 

- 1 quart of buttermilk 

- 2 cups of all-purpose flour 

- 1 tablespoon of Kosher salt and Freshly ground black pepper

- 1 teaspoon of paprika 

- 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes 

Place the chicken on large bowl and pour the buttermilk over them. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 5 hours. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Combine the flour, salt, pepper, paprika and red pepper flakes into a large bowl. Take the chicken out and coat each piece throughly with the flour mixture. Pour oil into the a large heavy-bottomed pot and heat to 360 degrees on a thermometer. ( If you don't have a thermometer timing is somewhere around 10-12 minutes) 

Working in batches, carefully place several pieces of chicken in the oil and fry for 3 minutes each side, or until golden brown. Don't over crowd the pieces! Remove the chicken from the oil and place each piece on a sheet pan. Allow the oil to return to 360 degrees before placing another round of chicken in. When chicken is fried, bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is no longer pink inside. Serve hot.