Seasoned Oven Baked Chicken Pieces

By
Danilo Alfaro
Danlio Alfaro
Danilo Alfaro
Danilo Alfaro has published more than 800 recipes and tutorials focused on making complicated culinary techniques approachable to home cooks.
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Updated on 01/25/24
Prep: 15 mins
Cook: 60 mins
Total: 75 mins
Servings: 4 servings

For a simple family meal, cut up a whole chicken (or buy it precut at the grocery store) and bake while you prepare the side dishes. A quick dredge in seasoned flour and then a dip in melted butter gives the meat good flavor and the skin a nice crispness.

The distinction between roasting a whole chicken versus baking chicken pieces is important for this recipe. With a roasted chicken, you're looking to raise up the bird as much as possible using a roasting pan with a rack. That way it's the hot, dry air of the oven that cooks it, producing a beautiful crispy skin while the meat stays juicy.

Since the chicken is cut up, and the pieces lie flat in a baking dish, the dish is conducting heat directly into the bottom half of the chicken, which is different than air. You get the sizzling fat on the bottom, making it wonderfully crackly underneath. Baked chicken is also cooked at a lower temperature for deliciously moist meat. Thus, a chicken prepared in this manner is midway between roasting and braising.

Another difference is that a baked chicken is typically dredged in seasoned flour before cooking, which we don't do when roasting a whole bird. Feel free to add more spices to your flour mixture if you like things spicy.

Enjoy this baked chicken dish with your favorite sides such as corn on the cob or steamed green beans, and some mashed potatoes.

Seasoned Oven Baked Chicken

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Ingredients

  • 1 large fryer chicken, cut into 8 pieces

  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

  • 1/2 teaspoon white pepper

  • 1/2 teaspoon paprika

  • 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled

  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt

  • 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients. Preheat the oven to 375 F.

    Oven baked chicken pieces recipe ingredients

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  2. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels.

    Chicken is patted dry with paper towels

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  3. Combine the flour, pepper, paprika, thyme, and salt, in a shallow dish.

    Combine the flour and other ingredients

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  4. Working 1 piece at a time with tongs, dredge each piece of chicken in the flour mixture and then dip into the melted butter, covering completely.

    Dredging chicken in flour and melted butter

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  5. Transfer to a baking dish skin-side up.

    Chicken is transferred to a foil-lined pan

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  6. Bake for about an hour, or until the juices run clear and the chicken is nicely browned and cooked all the way through. Serve and enjoy.

    Oven baked chicken pieces, ready to serve

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Tips

  • If you use your hands instead of tongs when dredging, the goal is to use one hand only for handling the items when they're dry (before they go into the butter), and your other hand will be your "wet" hand (for transferring buttered items into the flour and then onto the finished tray). If you get the hands switched around, you'll end up with a gummy mess.
  • The chicken is done when you cut into the thickest piece of dark meat and the juices run clear or the meat registers 165 F with a meat thermometer.

Recipe Variations

  • Make your chicken extra spicy by added more paprika, chili powder, or your choice of spice mix.
  • If your family is averse to spice, reduce or eliminate the spices, seasoning the chicken simply with salt.

How do you keep chicken from drying out in the oven?

  • Leave the skin on your chicken pieces while they're baking in the oven, as this helps to keep them from drying out. If you don't want to eat the skin, just remove it before eating.
Nutrition Facts (per serving)
591 Calories
43g Fat
6g Carbs
42g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4
Amount per serving
Calories 591
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 43g 56%
Saturated Fat 20g 100%
Cholesterol 193mg 64%
Sodium 441mg 19%
Total Carbohydrate 6g 2%
Dietary Fiber 0g 2%
Total Sugars 0g
Protein 42g
Vitamin C 0mg 1%
Calcium 35mg 3%
Iron 3mg 14%
Potassium 357mg 8%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

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