Oven-Baked Crispy Fried Chicken

I tend to make a lot of stews and crockpot meals in the winter, but it's been a long winter and I felt like we needed a taste of summer.  Fried chicken is a staple of summertime picnics.  Unfortunately fried chicken is tough on the waistline.  Wrestling is over, but I'm not ready to pull out the deep fryer just yet.  Last night I made some Oven-Baked Crispy Fried Chicken.

I started by placing 4 chicken thighs in a ziplock baggie with 3/4 cup of ranch dressing and mushed it around until the chicken was completely coated.

I've used lots of different things as a coating on my fried chicken.  Back when we were a gluten eating family, Cheez-It's were a crowd favorite.  Since going gluten-free, falafel chips are the goto coating.  I like the spicy variety.  I put about a half a bag of the falafel chips in a large ziplock baggie,

and crushed them with a rolling pin.  You can use your food processor for this part, but you'll then need to transfer the crushed chips to a baggie.

I transfer the ranch coated chicken to the falafel chip baggie, close the top, and shake away until the chicken is completely coated.  Don't forget to close the top of the baggie before shaking or bad things will happen.  Ask me how I know.  Transfer the chicken to a foil lined baking sheet that has been sprayed with olive oil.  Mist over the top with some more olive oil.  I like using an olive oil mister vs a cooking spray, because you can use the very best olive oil in your cooking.





Place the tray in a 375 oven and in 45 minutes you'll have perfectly golden, crispy, fake-out fried chicken.

I served this with some rice and roasted cauliflower.

Thanks for popping in and cooking with me.  I'm linking this up to Gluten-Free Homemaker's Gluten-Free Wednesdays and Lisa's Gluten-Free's Food & Health Carnival.