Baked Chicken with Fines Herbs and Breadcrumbs

This tasty baked chicken is coated in soft breadcrumbs with mixed fresh herbs, then baked in the oven. You can use a whole cut up chicken, or you can use all thighs or drumsticks. The nice thing about using the same parts is that they’ll cook evenly. Drumsticks are great if you happen to be cooking for kids.

As for the herbs, don’t stress if you don’t have all of the herbs listed below. You can use almost any fresh herbs, although I’d try to stick with soft, leafy herbs as opposed to something like rosemary. You want about 3/4 cup of herbs (after chopping) total.

INGREDIENTS
1 large fryer chicken, cut into 8 pieces (or 8 chicken pieces of your choice)
2 cups soft breadcrumbs* (see note below)
4 ounces (1 stick) butter, melted
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
3 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon
3 tablespoons chopped fresh marjoram
3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons Kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

METHOD

In a shallow dish, combine the melted butter, the garlic, half the salt and half the pepper, and 1 tablespoon of each of the herbs.

Pat the chicken dry with paper towels, then add the chicken to the herb and butter mixture and swish the pieces around until they’re thoroughly coated.

Cover the dish and let the chicken marinate in the fridge for at least 45 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine the breadcrumbs and the remaining herbs and seasonings and set aside. Cover so that the breadcrumbs don’t go stale cheap cialis 5mg.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375°F and take the chicken out of the fridge and let it stand at room temperature for 15 minutes so that the butter will soften.

Working with one piece at a time, dredge each piece of chicken in the breadcrumb mixture and then transfer it to a large baking dish. You can butter the dish first so the chicken doesn’t stick. Make sure your baking dish is big enough so that you don’t have to cram the chicken in too tightly. Discard any remaining breadcrumbs.

Bake for about an hour or until the juices run clear and the chicken is nicely browned and cooked all the way through.

YIELD: Serves 4.

NOTE: For this recipe, use fresh, soft breadcrumbs, not dry packaged breadcrumbs. For the breadcrumbs, I use a loaf of French bread, cut into chunks, and then pulse them in the food processor until I have 2 cups of breadcrumbs. Any crusty bread will work fine as long as it isn’t dark rye or pumpernickel. Sourdough would be excellent.