Oven "fried" chicken with a side of pickles & rice

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Yes, you are reading that correctly. Oven "fried" chicken with a side of PICKLES and rice. It's a weird combination but it works! Unless you don't like pickles, or rice or chicken then just move on and read my other blog entries lol. I can understand pickles but if you don't like chicken or rice, what is wrong with you?!

This is a simple recipe, I don't like using recipes where the ingredient list is as long as the Great Wall of China or using ingredients that you can't even find in your local grocery stores. Really who has time nowadays to make fancy schmancy meals?

Chicken is one of my favorite meats, I like it more than beef! I'm a chicken thigh kind of girl, drum sticks are good as well. Here's a tidbit, chicken thighs are just as healthy as chicken breasts if you remove the skin and the best part? Chicken thighs don't dry out like chicken breasts in the oven! Hooray! I love marinading chicken in buttermilk, that extra step just makes the chicken juicy and tender. Mind you I find the smell of buttermilk gross. lol

Things you'll need:
- 8 chicken thighs with skin on
- 500 ml buttermilk, if you're health conscious you can use light buttermilk
- 2 tsp salt and pepper
- 1 - 2 tbsp Cavendar's All-purpose Greek seasoning
- 8 slices Wasa hearty rye crispbread, crushed
- Vlasic pickles w/garlic
- White rice and soy sauce

Directions:
1. Place the chicken thighs with the skin on into a bowl or a large ziploc plastic bag. Pour the buttermilk on top of the chicken and add the salt and pepper. Make sure every piece of chicken gets some love from the buttermilk mixture. Let this marinade for min of 4 hours to overnight.

2. While the chicken is marinading  you can crush up the dark rye crispbread. This is what you're going to use to coat the chicken. You can either use a rolling pin or a mini coffee/spice grinder. Once the crispbread has been crushed up to the consistency that you like, you can add the Greek seasoning to the bread and mix thoroughly.

3. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Take the chicken out of the buttermilk and shake any excess mixture off the chicken and you're going to roll it in the rye bread mixture. Once the chicken is totally covered you're going to place it on a greased baking sheet.

4. Place the chicken in the oven and you're going to bake this for 40-45 mins. Make sure when you stick a fork in it, that the juices run clear.

5. Serve it with white rice and pickles on the side!

This recipe is great because you still get the crispiness but without all the oil that you would need if you were to fry it. I can't say that it's a lot healthier because you're still leaving the skin and using buttermilk but I can tell you it's better than frying! lol This chicken is still great the next day not as crispy but still tasty, so if you have any leftovers it's great for lunch!  I'm all about the making dinner and taking leftovers for lunch the next day.

Hope you like the recipe! Let me know what you think!

Happy Eating!

"Sleep 'til you're hungry, eat 'til you're sleepy." ~ Author Unknown