Pecan-Crusted Oven-Fried Chicken
- One 3½-to 4-pound broiler-fryer, cut up for frying (if the breasts are overly large as so many are these days, halve each crosswise)
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
- 1 large garlic clove, thinly slivered
- 1½ cups finely ground pecans
- 1 cup fine dry bread crumbs (unflavored)
- ¾ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 teaspoon crumbled dried leaf thyme
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions:
The fastest way to grind the pecans is in a food processor, but to keep them from reducing to paste, alternately churn and pulse until the nuts are about the texture of kosher salt.
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Wash the chicken parts in cool water, pat dry on paper toweling, and set aside.
- Place the butter and slivered garlic in a small, heavy saucepan and set over low heat until the butter melts. Tip: I often melt the butter in a 2-quart ovenproof glass measure in the microwave oven: 6 to 8 minutes on DEFROST should do it. Then I add the garlic.
- Combine the ground pecans, bread crumbs, grated Parmesan, thyme, salt, and pepper in a shallow roasting pan (not too large). Dip each piece of chicken into the melted garlic butter, then coat thickly with the pecan mixture and arrange in a large shallow roasting pan so that the pieces do not touch one another. Drizzle any remaining garlic butter over the chicken.
- Slide uncovered onto the middle oven rack and oven-fry for 1 to 1¼ hours or until richly browned and no traces of pink remain in the chicken. As the chicken cooks, baste occasionally with the pan drippings.
- Serve hot or at room temperature. I even like this chicken straight out of the refrigerator. Accompany with a tossed salad of crisp greens or, to be authentically southern, with Sweet Slaw.