fried chicken that's good for you?

Well yes, you read correctly. I made oven-fried chicken last night and it was quite delicious! This recipe was of course from Cooking Light (thanks again Heather!). This particular recipe is from a spread where they compare the certain dish with one you would maybe have at a fast food restaurant and then a healthier version you can make at home. Just because I love my readers so much I will share the love:

Buttermilk Oven-Fried Chicken

1 cup low-fat buttermilk
4 (8 oz.) bone-in chicken breast halves, skinned (I went with boneless)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cracker meal
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
2 tbsp. butter

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. To prepare chicken, combine buttermilk and chicken in a shallow dish, turning to coat.
3. Combine flour and cracker meal in a shallow dish. Transfer chicken from buttermilk to a work surface. Sprinkle chicken with part of the salt and pepper. Working with one chicken breast half at a time, dredge chicken in flour mixture, shaking off excess; set aside. Repeat procedure with remaining chicken and flour mixture.
4. Melt butter in a large ovenproof non-stick skillet over med-high heat. Add chicken to pan, meat side down; cook 4 minutes or until golden brown. Turn chicken over, and back at 425 for 32 minutes or until a thermometer registers 165 degrees.

Here's a few helpful tips:
If you don't have buttermilk and don't use it often so you don't want to buy a carton of it you can do this: mix 1 cup of milk with 1 Tbsp. of vinegar and voila! You have your cup of buttermilk! Another tip is: if you don't know what cracker meal is or you don't want to buy a whole bag for just a little bit you can finely crush 10 Ritz crackers (which is what I did) and there you have your own homemade cracker meal!

Here's the difference in fast food facts and the homemade healthy version:
Fast food:
Calories: 540
Fat: 31 grams
Sodium: 1, 290 milligrams

Homemade healthy:
Calories: 342
Fat: 8.8 grams
Sodium: 672 milligrams

Now doesn't that make you just now want to eat fast food? Hope you enjoy!