Cooking Chemist

I love fried chicken – I mean, who doesn’t?  However, it’s not exactly a figure friendly dish and I’m not really a fan of deep frying in my house.  I live in a condo which means I have a small kitchen and deep frying is messy and stinky so I prefer not to do it.  It doesn’t mean I still don’t crave the crunchy deliciousness of fried chicken so I’ve been searching for a recipe to help satisfy my craving without all the extra calories and mess.  Well, it appears I found a pretty good one.  Now don’t expect this recipe to taste exactly like fried chicken – it doesn’t.  But it does provide crunchy, moist chicken without the guilt of eating a bucket of chicken from your local KFC.

Coating the chicken with the Greek yogurt is really what helps to keep this chicken moist and of course is how the coating “sticks” to the chicken.  I’ve marinated chicken in yogurt before and have always found the results to be very good.  The yogurt not only keeps the chicken moist it also helps to tenderize the chicken.  Additionally, the “breading” used in this recipe is really creative, the rice cereal and bagel chips provide a great crunch that does not get soggy.  Overall, a good, solid recipe.  Next time I make this I might add some herbs and garlic to the breading to get even more flavor out of this recipe.

This recipe is courtesy of the Food Network Magazine with a few minor changes from the Cooking Chemist.

Ingredients

• Cooking spray
• 1 1/3 cups crispy rice cereal
• 2 1/4 cups bagel chips
• 5 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 3/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 1/2 cups plain Greek yogurt (2%)
• 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (the original recipe called for 4 skinless, bone-in chicken thighs or halved bone-in breasts which I’m sure gives this recipe even more flavor but I had boneless, skinless chicken breasts in my fridge so I decided to use them and the results were still really good)
• 1 bunch asparagus
• Sriracha (or ketchup if you are serving to kids or people who don’t like it spicy)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F. Set a rack (I just used a cooling rack that I normally cool cookies with) on a foil-lined baking sheet and generously coat the rack with cooking spray.  This is an important step because you want the entire chicken to get crispy – if you place the chicken directly on the baking sheet it will be crispy on the top but soggy on the bottom.

Finely grind the cereal and bagel chips in a food processor and transfer to a large resealable plastic bag. Add 3 teaspoons olive oil, the paprika, 2 teaspoons salt, and pepper to taste and toss.  I didn’t bother with the food processor – I just put the cereal and bagel chips in a resealable bag and used a small frying pan to crush them up.  This worked just fine and it’s an excellent way to relieve stress!

Whisk 1/2 cup yogurt and the mustard in a shallow bowl. Add the chicken and turn to coat, then transfer to the bag; seal and shake to coat. Place the chicken on the rack and mist with cooking spray.

Bake until the chicken is crisp and a thermometer inserted into the thickest part registers 160 degrees F, about 30 minutes. About half way through the cooking time, toss the asparagus with the remaining 2 teaspoons olive oil, salt and pepper and place alongside the chicken (you can place the asparagus directly on the rack next to the chicken and it will cook up nicely).

Make the dipping sauce: Mix the remaining 1 cup yogurt and sriracha to taste in a bowl (I used about 2 tsps). Serve the chicken and asparagus with the sauce.

Hope everybody enjoys.  I know the picture isn’t great – I hope to be the owner of a new camera soon which will hopefully result in beautiful food photos!

Tags: asparagus, chicken, sriracha