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Picnic Perfect Fried Chicken

healthy fried chicken

Featured Recipe: Picnic Oven-Fried Chicken

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4 secrets to healthier fried chicken.

By Jessie Price, Food Editor, EatingWell

Like any fried chicken, our healthier oven-fried chicken tastes as good cold as it does hot, so it’s perfect to pack in a cooler and take along on a picnic. In fact, it smells so great when it’s baking that you may not be able to wait until it’s cold to dig in.

So why not just fry the chicken? The numbers are enough to convince us. Here’s how our Oven-Fried Chicken stacks up against traditional fried chicken:

Nutrition Information	EatingWell’s Oven-Fried Chicken	Traditional Fried Chicken
Calories	226	431
Fat	7 g	26 g
Saturated Fat	2 g	7 g
Sodium	353 mg	441 mg
Fiber	1 g	0 g

Our 4 secrets to make “fried” chicken that’s delicious and healthy:

Start out by marinating the chicken in buttermilk, along with mustard and hot sauce—this keeps it juicy and moist. Plus it adds flavor.
Remove and discard the chicken skin, which is high in saturated fat. Typical fried chicken has 7 grams of saturated fat per serving. Our recipe has only 2 grams.
To maintain a crispy “fried chicken-like” coating, dredge the chicken in a blend of whole-wheat flour, paprika, thyme and sesame seeds. This gives it great full flavor with less fat and calories. (We dredge with whole-wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour to add fiber and nutrients.)
Instead of frying, spray the coated chicken with cooking spray and bake it on a wire rack until the coating is crispy.

These easy steps give the chicken a delicious, crispy outer crust that is significantly lower in total fat, saturated fat and calories. Plus you can use this same technique in other healthy “fried” recipes for foods liks zucchini and fish.

Make this healthy fried chicken part of a healthy picnic.