Oven-Fried Buttermilk Chicken Recipe
TIME/SERVINGS
Total: 50 mins, plus marinating time
Active: 15 mins
Makes: 4 servings
Oven-Fried Buttermilk Chicken
By Kate Ramos
Ideal for a picnic, this crispy corn-flake-coated chicken needs no utensils to be enjoyed. Marinating it overnight in rich buttermilk and a heaping dose of hot sauce makes for moist, flavorful, tender chicken with a kick of spice.
What to buy: Kellogg’s Corn Flake Crumbs are the perfect size for coating chicken. If you can’t find them, you can use 5 cups of corn flakes cereal and process it in the food processor until finely ground or place it in a plastic bag and crush the flakes with a rolling pin.
Game plan: If you cook the chicken just before leaving on your picnic, transport it warm, uncovered, in a basket lined with paper towels and foil. If you make it a day ahead, let it cool, then refrigerate it overnight. Pack the cold chicken in a covered plastic container lined with parchment paper.
The chicken needs to marinate overnight, so start this recipe a day in advance.
This recipe was featured as part of both our Mother’s Day Picnic menu and our Picnic Recipes photo gallery.
- 2 cups well-shaken buttermilk
- 4 large garlic cloves, peeled and lightly crushed
- 3 tablespoons hot sauce, such as Tabasco
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons finely ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 4 skinless chicken thighs
- 4 skinless chicken drumsticks
- 1 1/4 cups Kellogg’s Corn Flake Crumbs
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick), melted
- Combine buttermilk, garlic, hot sauce, salt, pepper, paprika, and cayenne in a large bowl and stir until evenly combined. Rinse chicken and pat dry with paper towels, then transfer to a 13-by-9-inch baking dish. Pour buttermilk mixture over chicken, cover, and refrigerate 12 hours, turning once.
- Heat the oven to 400°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Place a metal cooling rack inside a baking sheet and set aside.
- Place Corn Flake Crumbs in a shallow dish and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Remove chicken from buttermilk mixture, letting excess drip off, and place in Corn Flake Crumbs, turning to coat completely and pressing crumbs onto chicken. Transfer to the rack-lined baking sheet and repeat with remaining chicken. Drizzle melted butter over chicken pieces.
- Bake until golden and crispy and internal temperature is 160°F, about 35 minutes.
Beverage pairing: Agrapart & Fils Blanc de Blanc Grand Cru, France. Champagne is a great match for fried chicken, oven or otherwise, for three reasons. One, the bubbles just seem to go wonderfully with the texture of the batter. Two, the lemony flavor complements the chicken. And three, there’s the pleasure of the high-low: Champagne for chicken, not caviar.
Hey, this chicken turned out great! Not too spicy but still could taste said spices. This is now one of my go to chicken recipes.
I'm going to try this recipe but will used Panko crumbs and drizzle with olive oil before putting in oven. Worth a try.
Fantastic! I actually made the oven 425 degrees for the first 20 minutes then lowered it down to 400. Had to cook for one hour!
The children loved it, I added all the spices as per the recipe and it was not hot at all. Can't wait to try it with chicken cutlets...no more frying!! yea