Chicken dance

For my friend Bernie's 20th, I did what any sensible female would do and made him dinner. In my cherry-covered apron. The highlight of the menu was this oven-baked chicken that I found on the Food Network website. Despite the fact that it has some obscure ingredients (fucking Melba toast?) it was genuinely delicious. Literally, finger-lickin' good. And I happen to love fried chicken, but I can't eat it, so this was a pretty good in-between. Aside from being super easy, the chicken stays really moist (sorry) from the mayo/Dijon coating. Definitely use a food processor if you have one for the crunch, I just mashed it around in a plastic bag and some of the pieces were a little big. No cousins were married in the making of this chicken.

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups rice-corn crispy cereal, (recommended: Crispex)
2 1/4 cups broken bagel chips or Melba toast
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup light mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
4 bone-in, skinless chicken pieces (about 6 ounces each)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Set a rack on a foil lined baking sheet. Spray the rack generously with cooking spray.

Finely grind the cereal and toasts together in a food processor. Transfer crumbs to a large gallon size plastic bag. Add the oil, salt, cayenne, paprika, and ground pepper and toss to mix thoroughly. Whisk the light mayo and Dijon mustard together in a medium shallow bowl. Add chicken to mayonnaise and turn to coat all the pieces evenly. Drop the chicken into the plastic bag, seal and shake until each piece is evenly coated. Place coated pieces on the prepared rack. Spray the chicken pieces evenly with cooking spray, and bake until the coating crisps and browns, 35 to 40 minutes.








The birthday boy digs his chicken.