July 5, 2006 > Oven-Fried Buttermilk Chicken

To make this chicken crispy, coat it with canola oil cooking spray and then bake it in the oven followed by a quick turn under the broiler. This chicken is great served cold too!

1 whole chicken, cut into pieces
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
Canola oil cooking spray

Remove the skin from the chicken pieces and discard.

Put chicken and buttermilk in a gallon-size, zip-top bag or medium sized bowl; refrigerate for several hours.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Add flour, salt, white pepper, chipotle pepper, and cumin to a new gallon-size zip-top bag. Stir with a fork to blend well.

Remove a piece of chicken from the buttermilk and shake off excess liquid.

Dip chicken into flour mixture to coat.

While holding chicken piece over a plate spray it well with cooking spray.

Dip into flour mixture again and spray with the cooking spray.

Place chicken, bone side down, on a cookie sheet.

Repeat with remaining pieces.

Bake until chicken is cooked throughout and the coating is golden brown (about 25 to 30 minutes).
Switch the oven to "broil" and cook the chicken 6 inches from heat for a minute or two (until the outside is browned); watch it so it doesn't burn.