Baked Fried Chicken

By frying the chicken quickly then baking it the rest of the way you can avoid the litany of splatters from frying chicken as well as have all of the chicken done at the same time.  This is just as good served cold as it is hot.  Maybe even better…

 

3 pounds of bone in chicken pieces (I use legs and breasts only)

2 pints buttermilk

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon kosher salt

2 tablespoons black pepper

1 tablespoon paprika

Vegetable oil

Lay out chicken pieces in a casserole dish in a single layer and pour buttermilk over to cover.  If the buttermilk doesn’t quite cover, rotate chicken every four hours or so.  Refrigerate overnight.  

 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

 

Combine flour, salt, and peppers in a wide bowl.  Take the chicken out of the buttermilk one piece at a time, shaking of excess, and dunk them in the flour.  Set each piece on a cooling rack until all pieces are coated.

 

Pour oil into a heavy bottomed pan to a depth of one inch.  Using a thermometer, heat oil to 350 degrees.  Place several pieces of chicken at a time into the hot oil.  Fry until brown on all sides.  Don’t add too many pieces at the same time or the pan will cool off too dramatically.  The heat should remain at 350 the entire time.  When pieces are brown on all sides, remove from pan and place on a cookie sheet (I use tongs for this).  When all chicken has been fried place the cookie sheet in the oven and bake 35-40 minutes until there is no more pink inside.