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Yesterday I made Sweet Chicken according to this recipe: ding!
It was very good. However, I really don't like making and eating deep fried food, so I figured I should try oven-baking the chicken. But I'm afraid the batter will "drip" down from the chicken, or that it won't turn out as crisp.
Do you have any tips/approaches I can take while trying this?
Thanks!
I can understand not wanting to fry. Batter reacts differently to the temperature and airless environment of frying than it does to the hot air filled oven and baking process.
I would and often do this:
Get some stale bread and make breadcrumbs using a food processor: turn oven on low. Cut or break up bread. Put bread in food processor and pulse until crumbs. Turn off oven. Put crumbs on cookie sheet, set in oven to dry. They won't burn because the oven is now turned off.
Get three plates; on one put an egg wash, on the second put seasoned plain flour, and on the third put the breadcrumbs seasoned with herbs.( I typically use parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.)
Dip the chicken in the egg wash, then the flour, then egg wash, then crumbs. If you have time, refrigerate, and then after half an hour or so, do egg wash and crumbs again. The egg and flour blend to give a sticky batter-like base for the crumbs to mix with. If you're rushed, just repeat the egg and crumbs again straight away. The chicken can then be baked in the oven for 30 minutes or until ready. It's lovely!
I may be off base here, but Wondra Flour is the first thing that comes to mind. Its’ an instant flour aka pre-cooked. You could really cut back on the liquid in order to make a drier batter and use an egg and a little milk/water and other desired seasoning.
Use two bowls, one for dried Wondra Flour, the second for the batter. First toss the chicken in dried Wondra Flour, then into batter, pull out then back into dried flour. You will have to experiment a little to get the right combo, just keep in mind you can always rinse off the chicken and try again. Using an Oil Spray Bottle spray the back then put on racked baking sheet spraying the top. Halfway through the cooking process, you will need to turn over the chicken pieces as moisture will accumulate on the bottom. This also works best in a convection oven. If you are heavy on the oil spray, you are defeating the purpose of oven baking, so keep it light. Also, you may want to cut the chicken in larger pieces to give the batter a chance to brown.
If your supermarket doesn't carry it, just go to customer service and requested they start to carry it. You may have to talk to a Manager, but they usually will order it in. There is always online.
