Oven "Fried" Chicken with Buttermilk Biscuits

It may have been a bit ambitious for a Monday night dinner, but I had a lot of buttermilk leftover from the cupcakes and needed to use it. Lucky for me the recipes for the chicken and biscuits called for buttermilk. I need to use up the rest of the buttermilk before it expires. Maybe pancakes on are deck for this weekend? Or will it be Lemon Chess Pie? It if is Lemon Chess Pie, I will be sampling a new pie crust recipe courtesy of another Fairfield Alum/cooking blogger (whose great blog, Cooking with Jen, is linked on mine).

Originally, I was going to make an heirloom tomato salad as a side dish, however I did start dinner as soon as I got home from work on Monday and did not have the 2 hours to let the granita chill. I'll make the tomato salad another day. The veggie side was plain old lettuce with balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

The chicken happens to be one of my favorite dishes for dinner and the leftovers make for great sandwiches with a bit of lettuce. I am going to use the leftover biscuits as sides to the BBQ rubbed porkchops.

Buttermilk Biscuits

2 cups flourbaking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 salt

3 tbsp butter
3/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 450F. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add in the butter (cut it into small pieces, it is much easier to work with). Use a pastry blender to mix everything together. When the mixture gets mealy, add in the buttermilk. I find it easier to add the buttermilk in slowly and not all at once. When you are satisfied with the consistency, roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface (in the interest of saving Mike from extra clean up, I rolled it out on the baking sheet). The dough height should be 1/2 inch, cut out the biscuits using biscuit cutters. This makes 12 biscuits. The biscuits take about 12 minutes in the oven. They are done when they have a golden color on top. It should be noted for this recipe, and the following, that the pans should be coated with cooking spray, or use a silpat. I love my silpats and highly recommend them to all as they are extremely useful.

Oven "Fried" Chicken

3 pounds of chicken (I prefer thin-sliced chicken breast)
2 cups flour

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp salt

2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp ground white pepper

1 cup buttermilk

2 tbsp butter (melted)

Preheat oven to 400F. Combine flour, paprika, salt, garlic powder, thyme, and ground white pepper in a large bowl. Pour buttermilk into a shallow bowl. Dredge the chicken in the buttermilk and then the flour mixture. I prefer douple-dipping the chicken for more coating. Pour the melted butter over the chicken and then place the chicken (on jelly roll pans) into the oven for 40 minutes.

I think that coleslaw would also make a nice side dish for this dinner, if you like coleslaw. Some days I like it, while others I could go with out it.