Best Ever Crispy Baked Oven-Fried Chicken Recipe
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This oven-fried chicken is so crispy and brown, you’ll think it’s from KFC! So healthy and baked in the oven, and it tastes amazing! Not 1, but 2 secret ingredients revealed in this recipe!
OMG, crispy brown breaded chicken that’s baked and not fried – how on Earth did I do that? This recipe is different from all other oven-fried chicken recipes that you’ll come across on the Internet. It’s actually easier than most other breaded chicken recipes too and uses fewer ingredients!
There are two secret ingredients that make this oven-fried chicken so brown and crispy – (1) cornflakes and (2) mayo. Traditional breading for fried chicken is regular bread crumbs, and the problem with them is they don’t really brown unless they are fried in oil. If you use regular bread crumbs on oven fried chicken, they will taste good but look pale. If you are going for the golden-brown look, go with the cornflakes! Cornflakes are golden-brown to begin with, so you don’t have to rely on frying them in oil to turn them the right color :) Crush the cornflakes in a food processor to turn them into crumbs and use for perfect crispy breading!
When I make regular fried breaded chicken that I pan-fry in oil, I use panko bread crumbs. When I make oven baked breaded chicken, I use cornflakes. That’s my magic formula for the right type of breading!
Typical crusted chicken recipes are using whisked eggs to dip the chicken and then coat in breadcrumbs. Instead of the eggs, in this oven fried chicken recipe I’m using mayo! Mayo is stickier than eggs, so it makes the breading stick better and not peel off when the chicken is baked in the oven! In fact, I use the same mayo technique for my oven-fried fish recipe :)
So here you go – the secret is revealed! Just 3 simple ingredients – chicken, crushed cornflakes and mayo – produce the crispiest, yummiest golden-brown oven-fried chicken! This recipe is super easy to make – toss chicken in mayo, dip in crushed cornflakes and bake at 425F until cooked through! I usually use chicken tenders for this recipe because they cook quickly, but you can use any parts of chicken if you like. Anyone can make this amazing baked fried chicken – it doesn’t get any easier than that!
Oven-Fried Cornflake Crusted Baked Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs chicken tenders
- 3 cups cornflakes crushed
- 1/3 cup mayo
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Put chicken tenders in a bowl, add mayo to them, then toss with your hands to coat chicken with mayo all over.
- Put the cornflake crumbs on a plate. Dip each chicken tender in cornflake crumbs, pressing into the crumbs so the chicken is coated with crumbs all over. Put breaded chicken on a baking sheet in a single layer, so the pieces are not touching.
- Sprinkle the breaded chicken with salt and pepper.
- Put the chicken on the top oven rack and bake for 20 minutes, or until the oven-fried chicken is cooked through.
The chicken turned out so crispy and golden, it took me back to those family dinners without the guilt. My kids now ask for this every weekend, and I love that it’s so easy to make.
I’ve never been confident with breaded chicken recipes, always ending up with soggy or unevenly cooked pieces. But this one was so straightforward, even I couldn’t mess it up! The cornflakes and mayo combination is genius. When I pulled the tray out of the oven, I couldn’t believe how golden and crispy the chicken looked. It tasted even better than it looked, and now it’s my go-to recipe for when I want to impress guests without spending hours in the kitchen.