Baked 'Fried Chicken'

This is an awesome recipe that has a fried chicken flavor,

but is a bit healthier- and easier- 'cuz it's baked! Yay!

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I've made this using boneless, skinless check breasts (cut into strips),

but I've also used thigh meat. One thing I really want to try is

using bone-in thighs, just because I heart those, and I think

those'd be delish here, too. So whichever type of chicken you

choose, here we go...

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1. Soak chicken strips or pieces in a bowl of milk (or buttermilk,

if you like more tang) for 20-30 minutes.

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2. Mix in a large ziploc bag OR a bowl:

~ 1 c. flour

~ 1 1/2-2 tsp. paprika

~ 1/2 tsp. salt

~ 3/4 tsp. pepper

~ 1 Tbsp. Season All or Seasoning Salt

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3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut 1/2 stick of butter into slices

and place in 9x13 cake pan. Place pan in oven just long enough

to melt the butter. (This is such an awesome trick!)

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4. If needed, spread melted butter around bottom of pan so there

are no dry spots (you may use nonstick spray on dry spots, too,

if you need to.)

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5. Shake excess milk off each piece of chicken and coat with seasoning

(either by shaking in ziploc or pressing into bowl).

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6. Place each piece of chicken in pan.

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7. Cook for 20 minutes. Turn chicken over and cook about another

20 minutes. (**Timing depends, of course, on the size of your

chicken pieces. The smaller/thinner the chicken, the less

cooking time you'll need, so check it along the way ;)

You don't want it overcooked- just til it's cooked through.

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So yum! And really pretty simple.

This sort of reminds me of our copycat Chik-Fil-A nuggets,

except it's SO much less time-consuming because of the

baking- plus, a bit healthier ;)

Enjoy!