"Incredible Oven Fried Chicken"

Who doesn't like fried chicken?

Here is another great recipe from recipezaar.com. This is some really finger lickin' good chicken with a fried coating made in your oven (no standing and frying over hot, stinky oil!)

Mark's words in between mouthfuls were: "you should keep this recipe- it's good." So there you have a ringing endorsement from the man himself. Also, it passed the picky kid test with Simon yelling "chicka! chicka!"

I would say it's a little labor-intensive, by my standards, but just looking at this photo makes me want to fix it again! So here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• 
  
• Marinade:
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons hot pepper sauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 10-12 chicken pieces
• 
  
• Coating:
• 1 cup unseasoned breadcrumbs
• 1/3 cup parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 teaspoons thyme
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 cup melted butter

Directions

1. 1

   Whisk buttermilk, oil, hot pepper sauce, mustard, garlic, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a large bowl.

2. 2

   Add the onion and then the chicken turning to coat each piece with the marinade.

3. 3

   Cover; chill at least three hours or up to one day turning the chicken occasionally.

4. 4

   Combine breadcrumbs, cheese, flour, thyme, paprika, cayenne and 1 tsp salt in a large baking dish.

5. 5

   Remove the chicken from the marinade and roll in the breadcrumb mixture.

6. 6

   Set chicken on a rack to dry for about 30 minutes.

7. 7

   Preheat oven to 400F degrees.

8. 8

   Place chicken in large baking dish, and pour butter over each piece of chicken.

9. 9

   Bake until crisp and brown, approximately 50 minutes or until juices are no longer pink and run clear.

Just a few notes:

I never follow a recipe exactly as stated, so I changed a few things. I eliminated the drying time after you coat it- 'cause it was late and we were hungry! I also did not add hot pepper sauce, or thyme. I was out, but I think you can play with the seasonings in the coating a little. I used onion powder, not chopped onions in the marinade, and also added garlic and onion powder to the bread crumb mixture. ( I ran out of coating for 5 drumsticks and 5 thighs, so use 2 cups bread crumbs, I say.) Also, be smarter than me and COAT YOUR PAN WITH FOIL before you bake. Unless you want to spend a fun evening scraping burnt, greasy chicken bits off your pan. I would like to try this with skinless chicken next time, I think the butter might be enough to form a crust on the chicken. Anyway, it would be great with coleslaw or potato salad for a family dinner. Yum yum!

"Best Ever Banana Cake"

Hello recipe room! So sorry I have neglected you of late but I do finally have a good recipe to post, a yummy Banana Cake I found on Recipezaar.com

This cake had a lot of reviews and opinions written up about it, (which is why I like recipezaar, you can research what everybody did to make it work.) After reading up on the techniques, this is how I made it. It's a little unique in that you bake it very low, for a cake, at 275º. This slow cooking allows a nice sort of carmelized brown crust to form on the cake. I also found that the recipe makes a pretty large bowl of batter. I poured mine into a bundt pan and had too much, so I spooned about a cup of it into a bread loaf pan. This pan of shallow batter of course baked much quicker, but also had a lighter, fluffier more cake-like texture than the bundt pan, which took an hour and 15 min to bake, and was more dense, like a loaf of banana bread would be. So my suggestion would be to bake this in two 8 or 9 in. pans if you have them, so the batter is only about 1 1/2 in. deep. (It raises a lot as it bakes.) A larger pan will take a long time to finally get baked in the middle at such a low temp. Or, you could just try baking it at the standard 350º, it might be that that works just fine! One more note- tastes best after it has sat in the fridge over night and the banana flavor has developed a little. Make it the night before before you want to serve it.

Of course, after you smother the thing in cream cheese frosting, it is total deliciousness and you and those nearby you will be so glad you made this wonderful banana cake! (Here is a pic. of it as I held it in my lap in the car on our way to Jenny' house.)

Recipe as follows:

Preheat oven to 275º

mix in a bowl:

3 bananas, mashed

2 tsp. lemon juice

mix dry ingredients:

3 c. flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

a little less than 1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

pinch nutmeg

In your mixer cream together:

3/4 c. butter

2 c. sugar

beat in

3 large eggs, one at a time, then add

2 tsp. vanilla

Beat in

1 1/2 c. buttermilk

alternately with the dry ingredients

Stir in banana mixture. Pour into greased pans, bake 1 hr or until firm in the middle and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from oven, cool 5 minutes, cover and place in freezer for 45 min. (This step supposedly makes a more moist cake, but to tell you the truth, I skipped it because it was late and didn't want to run this thing out to the garage freezer, and I went to bed instead.) I did stick it in the fridge after it cooled though.

Cream cheese frosting:

1/2 cup butter or margarine
8 oz cream cheese, softened.

Mix until smooth.

Slowly add 1 pound powdered sugar and 1 tsp vanilla.

One more note: If you are like me and never have buttermilk sitting around in your fridge, just take 1 1/2 c. milk, remove 2 Tbs. from it and replace that with white vinegar. Let it sit and curdle a minute, it will be thick like buttermilk and works fine as a replacement.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Does anyone have a good recipe? I love the stuff. I've tried adding raisins and cinnamon to a regular bread recipe, but haven't had success.