Baked Breaded Chicken with Garlic Olive Oil
Beth LeeBaked Breaded Chicken with Garlic Olive Oil is a kitchen miracle! Using olive oil to adhere the breading, instead of eggs, delivers an insanely juicy and delicious result. First posted in 2011, this recipe never gets old, we love it now as much as we did then!
Ingredients
- 3-4 garlic cloves
- ½ - ⅔ cup olive oil
- Boneless skinless chicken 6 or 7 half breasts or 12 thighs or about 20 tenders
- 2.5 cups bread crumbs cracker crumbs, or cereal (any combination you like)
- ½ cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning or other dried or fresh herbs of choice
- 1 small lemon zested, juice reserved for after chicken is cooked
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
Instructions
Garlic-infused olive oil
- Add the garlic cloves to the oil in a small sauté pan on medium low heat. Once it bubbles (not a full boil), lower the temperature to maintain a low simmer for about 5 minutes. Then turn it off and just let it sit while you prepare the bread crumb mixture.
Bread crumb mixture
- If you are using miscellaneous leftover crackers and such to create your crumbs, place those in your food processor to create a crumb mixture. Then put that in your bowl and add the other crumb mixture ingredients.
- Mix your bread crumb mixture (bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, garlic powder, dried or fresh herbs, lemons zest and salt and pepper) in a plate or bowl or tray so you can dip the chicken in the mixture. (This step is where you can be creative - add some cayenne or crushed red pepper; skip the Italian seasoning and go for cumin and chili powder or try rosemary or oregano or basil; eliminate the parmesan cheese or use romano or asiago instead)
Coat and bake
- Once the oil is cooled down, bring it over to your dipping station so you can dip the chicken in the oil, then into the bread crumb mixture and then place it on a sheet tray for baking. If you have just a little extra bread crumbs or olive oil, sprinkle the extra over the top of the chicken.
- Bake at 325 convect or 350 regular bake for about 20 minutes convect, 30 minutes regular (exact time will depend on thickness of chicken pieces and the temperature of your particular oven - tenders will cook the most quickly). Optionally, a quick 1 or 2 minutes under the broiler can give you an extra extra crispy top.
- Right before serving, squeeze some lemon juice on the chicken from the lemon you zested.
Notes
- Note the thickness of your chicken pieces. Ideally your pieces will be similar - if any are significantly smaller or larger, you may want to take a few pieces out early or leave in longer when baking. BUT, the olive oil provides such a wonderful coating to maintain juiciness, that I am not sure I have ever had to do that!
- If you end up with a lot of extra bread crumbs (more than you want to sprinkle on top), you can heat them up in the pan you made the oil in until they are cooked through (because there was raw chicken on them remember?) and then use them to top something else. I topped some canned tomato soup with them and it was so yummy. Just be sure you toast them long enough to reach a temperature of 145° - 165°.
- Make extra chicken because you will want the leftovers for sandwiches and salads - I promise!
Nutrition
Calories: 264kcalCarbohydrates: 25gProtein: 23gFat: 7gSaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 86mgSodium: 418mgPotassium: 290mgFiber: 1gSugar: 2gVitamin A: 75IUVitamin C: 0.3mgCalcium: 144mgIron: 2.4mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!