Southern Girl Cooks: Oven Fried Chicken

One thing Southern people love is fried food. I'm a victim of it, there is just something delicious about fried chicken, fried pickles, fried veggies, and even fried snickers (which I eat annually at the fair). Unfortunately all these delicious things aren't healthy for you and you can't keep your ticker tickin' if you're clogging it with grease. Well, I decided it was time to start making:

Oven Fried Chicken

 

Ingredients

• 2 to 3 pounds of chicken
• 1 cup dried bread crumbs
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 cup mayonnaise

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl or gallon size resealable plastic bag, mix together the bread crumbs, garlic powder, salt, pepper, thyme and paprika.
3. Coat the chicken pieces with buttermilk. Place chicken pieces in bowl/bag with bread crumb mixture and coat/shake until well coated. Place chicken pieces in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish and bake for 45 minutes or until juices run clear.

I sometimes mix things up and add other seasoning to the bread crumbs. I also mix up the toppings and use flour, corn flakes, and even French Fried Onions. Occasionally I will start frying the chicken normally and then put it in a pan and bake it the rest of the way. This way it helps cut down the calories, but still gives you the taste!



Measuring with time

You know you're an Oklahoman if: You measure distance in minutes

Have you ever had to get directions from someone and have no idea what the hell they mean? Well this is especially true if you live in the South.

When I turned 15 my mom beat into my head that I should always pay attention to where I am, not only because she wanted to me to be safe if something were to happen to the car, but she didn't want me to get lost. While I "pretended" to pay attention to my current location it took several years, getting lost numerous times, and not being able to tell AAA where I was when my car broke down, for me to actually pay attention. But now that I have an iPhone, I will never have to call AAA and sound like a bumbling idiot when describing my location.

But before GPS I had no idea how long an actual mile was. I mean sure, some people would say that it was from one main road to the next, but when someone told me that it was 106 miles from Oklahoma City to Tulsa, I really didn't understand how long that was. Now, if someone were to tell me that it would take approximately an hour and 44 minutes for me to get to Tulsa, I'd completely understand and could time my trip perfectly.

A few years ago I dated a man boy that had recently moved to Oklahoma from South Carolina. He was in the military and I thought I was in love. We got along great in the beginning, but eventually the "love bird phase" wore off and the guy drove me bonkers. One of his favorite things to do was to mess with me when I wanted directions. He knew the concept of a mile was just a vague understanding, and yet he would tell me how to give somewhere with the number of miles, and to turn North, South, East, or West. Maybe it is just a "Yankee" thing, but it drove me mad. I'll take my left, right, 10 minutes, and even a few landmarks please.
 
Thank goodness for GPS.