Oven Fried Chicken is a favorite of just about everyone who likes chicken. Its moist, flavorful and has a bit of a crust. Its not any more healthy than skillet fried chicken, but when you have a lot of people to feed, its easier to fry it in the oven than stand over a hot skillet for a few hours or even over a big outdoor deep fryer.

Oven fried chicken takes 2 hours to bake so prepare accordingly.

You can make any sides you like for this dish. I make mashed potatoes and green beans.  Watch the serving sizes on cans of green beans and buy what you need plus a few servings more.  If you decide that 1/2 cup is not enough green beans, then buy more accordingly.  I make instant mashed potatoes and most people can’t tell the difference between them and regular mashed potatoes because I use sour cream and butter in them. I buy a big box and make the whole box but I make them in two batches. Its easier to stir them even with a hand held mixer when you make them in batches. Again watch your serving size. The folks I know LOVE their mashed potatoes so I make sure the serving size is about 1 cup.

For the chicken you’ll need:

1 leg-thigh quarter per person. Add a few legs and thighs cut apart for those who don’t want two pieces of chicken and for children.

Cooking  oil  of your choice
Butter
Flour
Seasoned Salt
Water
Salt


The night before you cook the chicken………..
Yes, you need to start the night before. Cut off dangly pieces of chicken fat and trim up the pieces neatly. Do not cut the thighs and legs apart except for the few pieces I mentioned above. Place chicken pieces in a large bowl, cover with cold water, sprinkle over about 3 tablespoons salt. Cover the bowl and refrigerate.

The salt water draws out all the blood from the meat and helps your chicken pieces cook more evenly. It also flavors the meat a tiny bit with salt. That’s a good thing.

The next morning………….
….Or right before you cook the chicken.

Heat the oven to 350*F. Place about 1/2 cup oil and 1/2 cup butter on each baking sheet you will be using. Put the prepared baking sheets in the oven to preheat. If you use really big baking sheets, then you can increase the amount of oil and butter you put on each sheet. You don’t want them to over flow but you want enough oil and butter to cook the chicken.

Put about 5 cups of flour in a large bowl. You can either add about 1 cup seasoned salt to the flour or you can wait and sprinkle the seasoned salt over the chicken after you dredge it with flour.

Dredge each piece of chicken in the flour. Set aside.

Take the HOT pans from the oven. (OR you can place the chicken pieces in the HOT oil while the pan sits in the oven using tongs. I actually do this more often than taking the pan out of the oven. It’s kind of hard to move a flat pan filled with hot grease!)

Place the pieces of dredged chicken skin side down on the baking sheet and in the oil/butter mixture. (If you did not add the seasoned salt to the flour, now is the time to sprinkle it over the chicken). Fill up your baking sheets and place them back in the oven.

Allow the chicken to cook for 1 hour. Gently, using a spatula, lift each piece of chicken and turn it over. Allow the chicken to bake for 1 more hour. If you find that the chicken pieces are getting too brown too quickly, you can lightly cover the baking sheet with foil while the chicken cooks and remove it toward the end of the cooking time.

After the chicken is done, the juices will run clear when you press the chicken with a spatula.

Once its done, I remove it to a heated serving pan and cover with foil until time to serve.