Fried (but actually baked) Chicken

Yay for the first recipe of the summer!  I'm so excited to start this journey with you guys. So, without further adieu.... here it goes!

I'm a horrible recipe follower.  I always look at recipes for ideas and then do whatever I want to change it to include/exclude things I don't like or think would make the recipes better.  Most of the time I really just wing it and it just works out!  This recipe was an inspiration from the May 2012 issue of the Rachael Ray magazine that featured a whole bunch of ways to make fried chicken.  None of them were quite perfect so I changed it up a bit.

Fried Chicken
Time: Prep:10min, Cook/Prepare: 1hr 15mins
Diffc: Medium

Ingredients:

2 packages of chicken drumsticks (10 total drumsticks)

1 container of buttermilk

1 cup of flower

1 cup parmesan cheese

2 tsp garlic powder

salt + pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 425*.

2. Dump the buttermilk into a bowl big enough to cover the drumsticks.  I placed the meaty side down so they stood up and were covered in the buttermilk.  Let them sit for about 30 minutes (or up to 12 hrs. You can do this part ahead of time until your ready to cook)

3. In a separate bowl mix the rest of the ingredients. Coat the chicken thoroughly in the mix and set on a greased broiling pan.  I just used pam. It'll still stick a little at the end of the cooking time but not nearly as bad.

4.  Once the oven is heated up just  pop the chicken into the oven for 45 mins.  Midway through you may want to flip the chicken so the oils from the chicken soak into the other side and coat the mixture.  If you don't do this you may have some of the flower mixture left of the outside of the chicken without any liquid.

And that's it! Pretty simple, and much healthier than if you would have actually fried it.  

I served it with some home-made mashed potatoes and some steamed veggies.

Enjoy and let me know how it goes!