30.6.12

Oven Fried Chicken

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It is summer. I mean, really, it's summer. It's really hard to miss here in Oklahoma. The first clue is the stifling heat and humidity that wraps you up like a big, warm, wet blanket and doesn't let go for a few months.

Nevertheless, I continue to maintain that I would rather be hot than cold. Hot is not fun, I will admit that, it is miserable and stifling and sometimes feel like I am boiling alive and like I cannot think because my brain cells are slowly being cooked one by one....


That is my nephew. He looks like he thinks it's too hot.

But I still think cold is worse. I know how to cool off. Granted, I think Oklahoma is hotter than the tropics in the summertime but many of my tried and true techniques perfected over ten years of living on a tropical island still work to at least take the edge off the heat here. But cold... I don't know how to deal with cold. When I'm cold I just freeze up into a little miserable tense ball of cold. I can't get warm, I can't move, it hurts to be cold.

Besides. I love cotton. I really, really, really love loose cotton yoga pants. They are one of my favorite things ever. And it is really hard to rock loose cotton yoga pants when there is snow on the ground. They are much more suited to stifling summer days. But, as the name of this post is "oven fried chicken" and not "loose cotton yoga pants," I digress. Maybe I will write another blog about loose cotton yoga pants. They deserve their own blog post. I'll get back to the point now.

Hot summer days call for picnics and swimming in the cool lake and ice cream (like this)


and lady bugs (like this)



and iced tea and cold fried chicken and watermelon. Cold fried chicken is, in my opinion, the perfect picnic food. You can make it the day before, it is cold and delicious, and just screams SUMMER PICNIC to me. You almost have to eat it while sitting on a red and white checkered tablecloth on the grass.

I guess, however, not everyone has had the privilege of eating cold fried chicken on purpose rather than just because they were too lazy to heat up the leftover fried chicken. When I first proposed the idea as part of a picnic menu, Morgan looked at me like I was a bit crazy. But he now admits that it is alright, and an acceptable picnic item. Mostly because I made him admit it whether he wanted to or not. I digress again.

The only problem with fried chicken on the summer picnic menu is the standing over the hot, popping oil frying chicken for hours and hours. (because it sure seems to take fried chicken hours and hours to cook. Or is that just me?) And hot, popping oil isn't my favorite thing on the best of days. I'm kind of scared of it. It always targets my face. I end up with little red blister bumps all over my arms, kind of greasy, hot, tired, and mad at the world. This is not a good way to start a picnic day, so I propose an alternative to this method of frying chicken: oven fried chicken.

Obviously, oven fried chicken is not actually FRIED chicken, per se, since it is not fried, but it is still crunchy and happy and fully ok for picnics. So I shall show you how to make it, now that I have talked for a sufficiently long time to probably put you to sleep.

The main ingredient in oven fried chicken (besides the chicken), the secret weapon of crunchiness, as shown to me by my mommy, is CORN FLAKES. Crunchy crispy corn flakes make our chicken all crispy and fried-like.


You take the corn flakes and crunch them up into little pieces with your hands. It's fun. Then you add flour and spices to make it a proper covering for chicken.


My favorite spices in this recipe are seasoned salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Lots of each, for maximum flavor impact.

Now in another bowl we mix eggs and milk for a wash to get the crunchy to stick to the chicken. 


Dip each drumstick (or thigh, it works well on thighs too) into the egg-milk mixture.


Then coat it well in the crunchy mixture.


And lay them out on a baking tray. You want the tray to have sides, and if possible it would be best to put the chicken up on a rack on the tray for maximum crunchiness. I didn't have a rack that fit my tray. But we survived anyways.


Bake these delicious noms until the chicken is cooked through. You can tell that chicken is cooked through if, when you stick it with a knife, clear juice runs out. No juice, and it is not cooked enough. Red juice, and it is not cooked enough. Clear juice, and it is cooked enough. Make sure to stick it deep though, and near the bone, to check in the middle of the chicken. It takes about 45 minutes for drumsticks to bake well in my oven.


The result is crunchy deliciousness, without standing over evil popping oil!


Sherman thought the drumsticks looked like something he should help eat. But he was not given a drumstick. I think I offended him. Oh well. He will get over it.

Oven Fried Chicken Recipe:

Dip:
2 eggs
3/4 c milk

Crunch:
1 c crushed corn flakes
1/4 c flour
garlic powder
seasoned salt
pepper

To Do:
Preheat oven to 350 F. 
Beat eggs and milk together in one bowl.
In another bowl, mix the dry ingredients. Season to taste... I use a lot of seasoning, it depends on what you like.
Dip the chicken first in the wet, then in the dry ingredients, coating thoroughly.

Alternatively for a thicker coating, mix the flour and seasonings separately from the crushed corn flakes, and dip the chicken in the flour, then the egg mixture, then the corn flakes. 

Bake chicken for about 45 minutes for drumsticks, or until juice runs clear and chicken is cooked thoroughly. Enjoy hot or cold!


24.6.12

Dutch Babies (aka German Pancakes in a muffin tin)

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These are one of my favorite breakfast foods ever.
No, really, they really are.
Above French toast.
Above eggs.
Above bacon... well, that might be taking it a bit too far. There really isn't much above bacon.

But these little breakfast things are really good. I'm not completely sure how to describe them... if you have had yorkshire pudding, they are kind of like a sweet version of yorkshire pudding. But I don't know very many Americans who have had yorkshire pudding. They are kind of dense, eggy, salty, and sweet, very buttery, and delicious with fruit on top.What they actually are is Dutch or German pancakes, but made in muffin tins instead of a skillet, so they are little.  Just make them, and then you will know how good they are and I won't have to explain it!


I got this recipe, and adapted it a very little, from this blog.



Dutch Babies

6Tb melted butter
1 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
4 eggs

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Then, mix together all your ingredients EXCEPT the butter... you can mix the dry ingredients and then add the wet ingredients if you want, or you can do it the other way around, or you can just dump all the ingredients in a bowl together and stir... I really don't care, it all works. The goal is to get it all mixed together, by whatever way makes you the most comfortable.

Add two tablespoons of the butter into the batter.
Now, take the rest of the butter (that is 4 tablespoons), and use it to grease a 12-muffin muffin tin. Use all the butter. there will be little pools of lovely warm golden butter on the bottom of every muffin tin. You want that. You want lots of butter. Butter is good.

Pour the batter into the muffin tins, but don't fill the tins too full. You want them to be about half  to three-quarters full, actually, with plenty of room to puff up to their full, delicious, puffy, butter glory.

Bake for 12-14 minutes, until they are all puffed up and the edges are golden. They will puff pretty high.


Pull them out of the oven, and let them cool a bit before pulling them out of the muffin tin and serving them with fruit on top... or jelly... or lemon juice and sugar... or berries... or whatsoever you desire to serve with these little pillows of deliciousness.



The centers will fall down, leaving the edges puffy, giving you a lovely little cup in which to hold the topping of your choosing.

You can make a large portion of the batter and then keep it in the fridge and cook only as many dutch babies as you want at the time... the batter keeps well in the fridge for at least a week. I'm not sure if it lasts longer... I usually use it all up within a week, and if I don't use it up in that time it's usually because I've forgotten about it, in which case I will continue to forget about it until it is far too late.

Happy Dutch Baby eating!