4 secrets to picnic-perfect fried chicken

Although fried chicken is a perfect picnic food, it’s not perfect health-wise. But there’s a solution to making fried chicken healthy without sacrificing flavor: oven frying. Like any fried chicken, our healthier oven-fried chicken tastes as good cold as it does hot, so it’s perfect to pack in a cooler and take along on a picnic. In fact, it smells so great when it’s baking that you may not be able to wait until it’s cold to dig in.

So why not just fry the chicken? The numbers are enough to convince us. Here’s how our Oven-Fried Chicken stacks up against traditional fried chicken:

Our 4 secrets to make “fried” chicken that’s delicious and healthy:

• Start out by marinating the chicken in buttermilk, along with mustard and hot sauce—this keeps it juicy and moist. Plus it adds flavor.
  
• Remove and discard the chicken skin, which is high in saturated fat. Typical fried chicken has 7 grams of saturated fat per serving. Our recipe has only 2 grams.
  
• To maintain a crispy “fried chicken-like” coating, dredge the chicken in a blend of whole-wheat flour, paprika, thyme and sesame seeds. This gives it great full flavor with less fat and calories. (We dredge with whole-wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour to add fiber and nutrients.)
  
• Instead of frying, spray the coated chicken with cooking spray and bake it on a wire rack until the coating is crispy.

These easy steps give the chicken a delicious, crispy outer crust that is significantly lower in total fat, saturated fat and calories. Plus you can use this same technique in other healthy “fried” recipes for foods liks zucchini and fish.

EatingWell's Oven-Fried Chicken
Makes 4 servings

1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon hot sauce, such as Tabasco
2 1/2-3 pounds chicken legs, skin removed, trimmed and cut into thighs and drumsticks
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt, or to taste
Freshly ground pepper to taste
Olive oil cooking spray

1. Whisk buttermilk, mustard, garlic and hot sauce in a shallow glass dish until well blended. Add chicken and turn to coat. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 1/2 hour or for up to 8 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with foil. Set a wire rack on the baking sheet and coat it with cooking spray.
3. Whisk flour, sesame seeds, paprika, thyme, baking powder, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Place the flour mixture in a paper bag or large sealable plastic bag. Shaking off excess marinade, place one or two pieces of chicken at a time in the bag and shake to coat. Shake off excess flour and place chicken on the prepared rack. (Discard any leftover flour mixture and marinade.) Spray chicken pieces with cooking spray.
4. Bake the chicken until golden brown and no longer pink in the center, 40 to 50 minutes.

By Jessie Price

EatingWell food editor Jessie Price’s professional background in food started when she worked in restaurant kitchens in the summers during college. She started out testing recipes for EatingWell and then joined the staff here full-time in 2004 when she moved to Vermont from San Francisco.

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