The best crispy oven-fried chicken breast you will ever eat. Super easy to make and healthier too. Brined in milk, coated with seasoned flour, then baked in butter. Nothing is better.
Introduction
Who doesn't love fried chicken? Get a great fried chicken that is crispy and moist with this easy oven recipe. Add in the gravy, and you have wonderful comfort food.
But what a mess at home fried chicken can make. The deep-frying is just not home friendly not to mention the health issues. So here is a simple method to get all that great taste, avoid all that mess and work. Plus it's much healthier.
Based on a Food.com recipe I simplified it to a one-pan method and changed the gravy to our tastes.
You marinate the chicken in milk, melt some butter in an oven-safe pan, coat the chicken with seasoned flour, and "fry" it in the oven. Make the gravy, and you have a great family dinner.
Since I'm cooking for two, the one-pan thing works well but if you are cooking for more, use a larger pan like a cake pan, and you can move the drippings to a saucepan to make the gravy.
Also, the original recipe uses milk and mushrooms in the gravy. I don't use mushrooms in much of anything due to family food allergies. The milk would be okay, but the chicken broth adds some more chicken taste.
My Rating
I love this recipe. I could live on fried chicken, and this is excellent. PS I love gravy, also.
🐓The Chicken
This is for skinless boneless chicken breast. But thighs work also but cook them to about 180°. While skin-on chicken should cook fine with this method, it won't be tender like the meat.
🥛The Milk
This recipe uses milk as a brine (milk is high in salt) that adds some great moisture. Any milk will do, but buttermilk is commonly used. Use what you have.
The milk also combines with the flour and helps the breading stick to the chicken. Just shake off the milk, don't pat them dry.
If you want to skip the milk brine, I suggest trimming and drying the breast, then a dip in a whipped egg with a touch of water. Shake off and proceed with the flour coating.
The Butter
This recipe "works" so well because of the butter in the pan. It adds just the right taste to make this technique excel.
The chicken needs to be in touch with the surface as much as possible so skinless chicken breasts or thighs work well here.
⏰How Long
Medium size skinless boneless chicken breasts will take about 35-40 minutes at 375° in a convection oven or 400° in a conventional oven. The target internal temperature is 165°.
If you use thighs, everything stays the same but it will take a few minutes more since you want to use a 180° target internal temperature—that is a texture choice. Chicken is safe at 165°.
✔️Tips
Milk or Buttermilk makes an excellent marinade for chicken. You can skip this and use an egg wash to adhere the flour coating to the chicken.
If you want a little more KFC taste, substitute white pepper for the black pepper. Or go full 13 spice KFC with Oven Fried Chicken – Is it KFC? my version of this recipe with KFC spices.
Bread crumbs? I do a lot of cooking with bread crumbs—but please not here. It is not needed and will make it "shake and bake" like.
If you have issues with the coating sticking to the chicken, coat the chicken with the flour mixture and allow to rest for about 10 minutes. Then proceed with melting the butter and cooking.
Also, be very careful flipping the chicken. Use a fork in the edge. Do not use tongs or a spatula.
📖Chicken Breast Recipes
Pan Seared Oven Baked Chicken Breast
Sheet Pan Chicken Breasts with Carrots and Potatoes
Parmesan Mayonnaise Baked Chicken Breast
🖼️Step-by-Step Instructions
Everyday ingredients.
Start with a milk marinade for 30-60 minutes. Cover the chicken with the milk and allow it to set in the refrigerator. Buttermilk would be excellent here.
Preheat oven to 375° convection or 400° conventional. Mix 1 cup AP flour with 1 tablespoon seasoning salt (I used Lowery's), two teaspoon paprika, one teaspoon black pepper. Mix well.
Slice up four tablespoons of butter into an oven and stovetop safe pan. Place in the hot oven for 2-3 minutes to melt the butter. I'm using a 12-inch cast-iron pan.
Shake off any extra milk and dip in the flour mixture. If you have skipped the milk brine, trim and dry the chicken well then dip in an egg bath with one egg and a teaspoon of water. Cover completely with the egg mixture, shake off excess and proceed with the flour coating.
Shake off excess flour and let rest for 5-10 minutes before placing "good side" down into the melted butter. Bake for 20 minutes, then turn the chicken over using a fork on the meat's edge. Cook until the internal temperature of 165° (about 15-20 minutes more) depending on the chicken's thickness.
Remove chicken and tent with foil on a plate. Place the pan over medium heat. At this point, you should have some drippings left. You need about ¼ cup. If you don't have that, add a little chicken broth. Add flour approximately equal to the volume of the liquid. Whisk the flour and liquid together and cook until browning some — about 2-3 minutes.
Add 1 - 14 oz can of chicken broth, and bring to boil while continuously whisking. Continue until nicely thickened. About 3-4 minutes then add salt and pepper to taste.
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📖 Recipe
Oven Fried Chicken
Tap to leave a Rating
Ingredients
- 2 skinless boneless chicken breasts
- 2 cups milk
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1 cup AP flour
- 1 tablespoons seasoning salt - I used Lowery’s
- 2 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
For Gravy
- ¼ cup AP flour
- 14 oz chicken broth
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Start with a milk marinade for 30-60 minutes. Cover the chicken with the milk and allow it to set in the refrigerator. Buttermilk would be excellent here.
- Preheat oven to 375° convection or 400° conventional. Mix 1 cup AP flour with 1 tablespoon seasoning salt (I used Lowery's), two teaspoon paprika, one teaspoon black pepper. Mix well.
- Slice up four tablespoons of butter into an oven and stovetop safe pan. Place in the hot oven for 2-3 minutes to melt the butter. I use a 12-inch cast-iron pan.
- Shake off any extra milk and dip in the flour mixture. If you have skipped the milk brine, trim and dry the chicken well then dip in an egg bath with one egg and a teaspoon of water. Cover completely with the egg mixture, shake off excess and proceed with the flour coating.
- Shake off excess flour and let rest for 5-10 minutes before placing "good side" down into the melted butter. Bake for 20 minutes, then turn the chicken over using a fork on the meat's edge. Cook until the internal temperature of 165° (about 15-20 minutes more) depending on the chicken's thickness.
- Remove chicken and tent with foil on a plate. Place the pan over medium heat. At this point, you should have some drippings left. You need about ¼ cup. If you don't have that, add a little chicken broth. Add flour approximately equal to the volume of the liquid. Whisk the flour and liquid together and cook until browning some — about 2-3 minutes.
- Add 1 - 14 oz can of chicken broth, and bring to boil while continuously whisking. Continue until nicely thickened. About 3-4 minutes then add salt and pepper to taste.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips:
- If you want a little more KFC taste, substitute white pepper for the black pepper. If you want the full 13 spice KFC then see Oven Fried Chicken – Is it KFC?
- The amount of flour coating is more than needed. You use about half, but it is harder to coat with less.
- If you have issues with the coating sticking to the chicken, coat the chicken with the flour mixture and allow to rest for about 10 minutes. Then proceed with melting the butter and cooking. Also, flipping with a fork in the edge of the chicken will help the coating stick.
- You should use a non-stick pan or seasoned cast iron.
- If you want to skip the milk brining, just time the chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Dip in an egg bath of one egg with a teaspoon of water whipped. Coat completely and shake off excess. Then proceed with the breading coat.
Making a Large Amount
- Don't "crowd the pan." Use a cake pan or sheet pan.
- When arranging the chicken on the larger pan, thicker part of the chicken to the outside or corner. Thinner part to the center of the pan.
- To make gravy, you can do it as described in a cake pan but not in a sheet pan. With the sheet pan, pour any liquid into a saucepan and use the slurry technique to make gravy. See How To Make Gravy at Home for details on making gravy with the slurry technique.
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition
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Editor's Note: Originally Published February 1, 2104. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation. I personally love this recipe, and we do this frequently. You can not go wrong with this recipe. I guarantee it.
Laurel
Dr. Dan,
I will try this but find some of your recipes are very high in sodium.
I've liked ever recipe I've tried but usually have to leave out the salt for health reasons.
DrDan
Hi Laurel,
Welcome to the blog.
It is hard to address individual health needs in this sort of environment. I have a small discussion on salt at https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/oven-temperatures-abbreviations/ .
The nutrition is a computer generated estimate. I just changed the plugin that does that and ran this recipe though it. It was horrible. The sodium came out at over 2000 per serving. Turns out the database used pure table salt not seasoning salt to calculate. I did fix that so the 700 is so much better and is accurate.
Actually this recipe already had cut down seasoning salt from the original since I felt it was too much.
Good luck with the low sodium diet. One doctor like comment... I love Registered Dietitians. Don't hesitate to ask your doctor for a referral if you need help with the prescribed diet.
Dan
Donna
Made this tonight for supper. It had a good seasoning taste (minus the paprika...didn't have any). I also used some boneless/skinless thighs and legs. Like others, I, too, didn't have a crispy, brown coating, but the chicken was tender and moist. Both my husband and I agree that the next time I'll use the Panko crumbs like with the Iowa pork tenderloin. I didn't make the gravy, so can't comment on that.
Next up later this week is the Simple Old Fashion Meatloaf.
Jean
Dr. Dan,
Best chicken ever. The flavor was incredible and the drippings made gravy that was off the chart good. My husband loved it and said I could make it again anytime and it's now in my regular rotation. I have made several of your recipes and love every one. Next on my list is the baked banana pancake.
Keep up the good work I really appreciate you.
Best wishes,
Diane
This recipe is awesome!! The chicken was flavorful and very tender. The gravy was perfect. Just a note - I made this on a weeknight and I work during the day, so I put the chicken in the milk in the morning and left it all day and it was perfect. Also, like other commenters, my chicken was not browned after the first 20 minutes and my pan was VERY hot when I put the chicken in. Quick solution - I put it on the stove top for a few minutes to brown before I turned it over and put it back in the oven. Next time (and there will be a next time!), I will skip the first 20 minutes of oven time and simply brown first on one side on the stovetop before turning and putting in the oven to finish. Thanks for the recipe. More quick, simple recipes are appreciated!
DrDan
Hi Diane,
I do love this recipe. The longer time in the milk brine should be fine. I would suggest flipping at about 25 minutes or at the point the color is close to the final color you want. With my equipment, 20 minutes still works well but again flip at good color will be less complicated.
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Lori
First time commenter but I've been enjoying your site for a while now and tried several of your recipes. I fixed this for supper last night and my entire family loved it! Made it exactly according to your recipe minus the paprika because I didn't have it on hand. Chicken turned out moist, very tasty and nicely browned. I made the gravy using up the leftover seasoned flour i had used to coat the chicken. I printed the recipe and saved it in my recipe notebook because this will definitely be made over and over at my house. Great recipe when you're having company! I appreciate your website and the work you put into it.
Nicola M Dugger
This is probably a real silly question but I have 2 chicken breast bone-in skin-on (well kinda),the skin is not covering much of the breast at all,would you recommend using this oven recipe or would you recommend the other oven one(with your skin on all the way that is)? I kno it would prob dry my chicken out if I use ur other recipe for "skin on" since not much skin covering the meat,we love the crispy skin and/or fried... Please help asap....Chicken is waiting now for an answer,lol.,.thanks in advance
Nicola M Dugger
Also I have only regular conventional oven..:(
DrDan
I'm not seeing this as the recipe for you. I have multiple recipes for "split" chicken breasts. https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/category/chicken-split-breast/ . Try this one. https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/oven-baked-mayonnaise-parmesan-chicken/ Cook at 400 conventional if your oven doesn't run hot.
Dan
halfadime7
Dr. Dan, you are a wizard when it comes to cooking delicious and moist chicken breasts. We had this tonight and it was so good I couldn't stop eating, even after I was full. I have to say that this is the first time I've cooked skinless, boneless chicken breasts that were soft and tender and tasty. I do have to admit that I did add 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder and 1 tsp baking powder to the dredge mix. We didn't do the gravy (I'm sorry to say), but the chicken was perfect. Otherwise, using a conventional oven it didn't brown up as well as yours did although I did add a few extra minutes to try to get the color, but was afraid of overcooking it. In all, an EXCELLENT dinner for us. The dogs enjoyed the leftovers, too. Thanks for your help.
DrDan
Thanks for the comment.
This is one of my favorite underappreciated recipes. I modify the seasoning frequently and now use some white pepper to get a good KFC type taste.
If you get to a final temp and color isn't quite there, hit it with a few minutes with the broiler.
That milk marinade really does work.
Dan
Eric Miller
I made this for dinner sans gravy so I can't comment on that, but the chicken was delicious. It isn't quite the same as real fried chicken and you have to handle it a little carefully or the coating will come off (especially on the flip) but the coating is delicious and the chicken was nice and juicy. And my kitchen doesn't smell like fryer oil. So it's a win.
Regina
Very good 3 picky eaters ate this with gusto!
DrDan
Thanks so much fo the note. I love this recipe and it is part of my normal rotation but it has just not "taken off". It is top on my under-appreciated list.
DrDan
Michelle Delahanty
Cant wait to try this, but was wondering....have you ever tried this with bone in chicken? Hubby really doesnt like boneless or breast meat.
DrDan
I have never tried this with a skin on or bone in but I suspect something somewhat flat like chicken thighs might work well. Remember that thighs need to cook to 185 range.
DrDan
Kim
Easy recipe that my family really liked. Frying the chicken in butter made it too rich for my taste. Will try it again using vegetable out instead. Thanks for the recipe!
Kim
Sorry for the typo. I meant vegetable "oil".
DrDan
A two rating .... humm ok
Amy
This was delish! Will make again. :)
Heidi
The hubby and I just made this for dinner tonight and it was fabulous! We'll definitely me making it again in the future!
DrDan
Excellent. Thanks for the comment.
DrDan
Heather
I made this a few weeks ago. It was really good. The only problem I had was the breading stuck to the pan, but I think that's just because of the pan I used. I was just wondering if you thought this recipe would work for boneless pork chops?
DrDan
I find that Pork tenderloin and chicken breast recipes seem to work very good back and forth. The boneless pork chop (I assume from loin) will probable work fine but I would be careful not to over cook. That might be the issue that the coating takes a certain amount of time to brown and the lean loin chop might over cook. A pork chop with a little more fat might work better than a loin chop.
The sticking may well be the pan. I always use seasoned cast iron and it is very much non-stick.
DrDan
Valerie
Heather, when the meat with the coating sticks to the pan it is usually because your pan was not hot enough before you put the meat in. Lower the degree of your pan and cook the meat a little longer! Good luck you will be happy with this recipe! Enjoy! xxxooo
Katie
I just made this and it was delicious! My came out perfectly golden. Must easier way to "fry" chicken than using all that oil on the stove top. Will definitely make this again. thanks!
DrDan
Excellent. That is my feelings. This is the default home fried chicken here.
Thanks for the note
DrDan
vickie
I made this last night and must have done something wrong or at least incorrectly. Your picture shows this wonderful brown crust, but mine
only had a pale coating ...no brown. The chicken tasted great, but definitely something was missing. My oven thermometer showed 400
degrees. Suggestions?
DrDan
Be sure it is nicely browned on the bottom before the flip. If it takes a little longer to brown just let it continue before you do the flip.
Hope that does it for you
DrDan
nancy
I absolutely love fried chicken, but am also, like you, trying to eat healthy....this is a wonderful alternative to frying in Crisco oil......can't wait to try this!!!
DrDan
Gee I have not thought of Crisco in years... This is much better.
DrDan
Joan
Thanks for this. My daughter is visiting soon and wants her mother's chicken dinner which I no longer cook because of health issues. This will fit the bill and along with mashed potatoes and some dressing will taste just like mother's chicken dinner.
DrDan
Hope it works out for you. I always do a trial run for a new recipe for important cooking's. You might want to do that...
DrDan