Oven fried chicken is a simple process of dredging chicken in seasoned flour, then baking with far less oil and mess than frying!

Oven-fried chicken is nearly the only version of fried chicken I had ever known growing up. This style, with bone-in pieces of chicken with the skin on, was one of my mother’s Sunday best as well as weeknight go-to. Back in the days of our big family football tailgaters, a bucket of extra-crispy from KFC was not beneath us (my dad liked going to pick it up, because he could have an appetizer piece or two on the way home. I could tell he’d been munching…).

When my mom was feeling it, she would make pans of her oven-fried chicken for the tailgater. On the scale of fried chicken badness, this is a healthier one and much easier than deep-fried chicken. Finger-licking-good, and simple too; Mom considered this one of her easy chicken recipes that she taught all of us to make. The process takes just a few minutes, dredging chicken pieces in a seasoned flour mixing and then “frying” them in just a bit of oil on a baking sheet in the oven at high heat. I love how this chicken tastes so good whether it is warm out of the oven or at room temperature, or even cold right out of the refrigerator. I like to make A LOT of oven fried chicken when I do it, then have a lot of leftover chicken in the fridge to grab and go, or for another nice dinner, again later. 

Ingredients

Chicken. Of course! Choose your favorite bone-in, skin on chicken pieces just as you would for deep fried chicken. I usually select a mix of chicken breasts, chicken thighs, chicken drumsticks, and chicken wings (Dan’s favorite). You can also break down a whole chicken yourself, into pieces. The split breasts are often giant; cut those in half crosswise with a sharp knife or scissors before dredging and cooking. My cousin Celine asked if she could use skinless boneless chicken with this recipe. Answer: yes, but reduce your cook time, since that will cook more quickly. 

Flour. Unbleached, all-purpose flour.

Seasonings: Paprika, garlic powder, kosher salt or fine sea salt, and black pepper. For a kick, add a pinch of cayenne pepper. Onion powder is another nice addition or substitute for garlic powder.

Oil. Use olive oil, neutral oil (any flavorless oil such as avocado, grapeseed, vegetable), or a mix of the two.

How to make oven fried chicken

Step 1. Pat the chicken pieces dry and season with salt and pepper. Place an oven rack in the middle position and preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking pan with foil (non-stick is ideal) and coat it generously with 1/3 cup of oil.

Step 2. In a deep or wide bowl, whisk the flour with paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Dredge the chicken, once piece at a time, in the seasoned flour mixture just before baking. Shake excess flour off each piece and place on the sheet pan, turning to coat in the oil. Keep the chicken in a single layer and feel free to tuck them in close to one another. 

Step 3. Bake for 45 minutes, turning the chicken over after 20 minutes using tongs. For deeper browining, turn the oven to 400°F convection, if you have it, for the last 10 minutes of roasting. When a instant read meat thermometer in the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165°F., is deep golden brown and the juices run clear, remove from the oven. Dark meat (thighs, wings, and drumsticks) can take longer to fully render the fatty skin; you can remove the white meat breast pieces and increase the cooking time for dark meat pieces by an additional 10-15 minutes. 

Tips for making excellent chicken

Don’t substitute the flour for breadcrumbs or panko breadcrumbs. This easy recipe doesn’t use the process needed to get breadcrumbs to adhere to the chicken; that would be a breaded chicken recipe.

If you want very crispy skin, especially for dark meat, use the convection setting in your oven and give the skin time to crisp up at that higher temperature with air flow, an additional 10-15 minutes.

Dredging tips: be sure to dry the chicken off with paper towel before dredging it in the flour mixture to help the coating stick. Also, it may be tempting to leave as much of the seasoned flour on the chicken as possible, but this results in softer, mushy chicken skin. Tap off all of the excess flour before transferring the dredged chicken to the pan.

Non-stick aluminum foil is ideal for oven-fried chicken because the chicken releases much more readily after it is cooked.

Do use a rimmed baking sheet rather than a baking dish, which typically has higher sides and prevents the flow of air around the chicken. The more air around the chicken, the more golden and crisp it will be.

What to serve with it

Mom’s favorite plate with the chicken? Green beans and either Lebanese rice (which includes golden brown vermicelli pieces, available in my shop) or mashed potatoes (try vegan mashed potatoes with olive oil). Plus Salata, Lebanese salad that is bright with lemon juice and seasoned with mint and garlic. Other great options include roasted new potatoes, chickpea feta salad, or Mediterranean quinoa salad.

Is oven-fried chicken healthy?

Chicken made this way in the oven is a healthier alternative than deep fried chicken because far less oil is needed to achieve crispy skin and tender chicken.

The other benefit of chicken this way is that there is less mess and cleanup compared to deep frying.

Storing and reheating

Store leftover chicken in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. The best way to reheat is in the oven. Preheat the oven to 350°F, place the chicken pieces on a foil-lined baking sheet or in a baking dish in a single layer, and heat for 15 minutes if the chicken is cold and 8 minutes if the chicken is room temperature.