I married a Southern boy whose family has successfully run a number of fried chicken restaurants in South Carolina. He professes to be a chicken connoisseur… I am surprised my wedding vows did not include something about being able to make some good fried chicken.
This is an oven-frying-only recipe – you don’t need to do any stovetop frying at all. I will work on a true “Southern Fried” stove-top version in the near future when I can locate some good lard in bulk but when you don’t have a lot of quality frying grease on hand, this is a nice and easy recipe that yields some really yummy finger-lickin’ good chicken that is also good for you!
Start with some good quality chicken pieces with skin and bone-in. We aren’t making chicken strips here. Thoroughly dry your chicken and coat with half the seasoning and paprika. We don’t add the paprika to the flour mixture so that the chicken does not discolor when cooking.
Mix the other half of the seasoning with the almond flour.
Whisk together the egg and almond milk.
Now we do our first coating of the chicken pieces. Use one hand dip a piece of chicken into the egg mixture. Take care to drip any excess egg back into the bowl.
Drop the chicken piece into the bowl of flour mixture. Use your other hand to coat the chicken in flour. Shake off any excess flour and put on a plate or tray
Once all the chicken is coated, leave the chicken to rest for 10 minutes.
Then, it’s time to coat the chicken pieces again in the flour mixture. Don’t redo the egg, we only want to dip the chicken into the flour again and place them on the grilling tray.
Drizzle the butter or olive oil over your pieces and pop them in the 400 oven until chicken is cooked and a nice golden color.
40 minutes later, we have some lovely golden fried chicken!
You’ll need:
- 3 lb chicken pieces with skin and bone
- 2 cups almond flour
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 3-5 TBSP melted butter or olive oil
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp oregano
- 4 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp white pepper
- 1 tsp Cajun spices
- 1 tsp paprika
- Preheat oven to 400
- Prepare an oven grilling tray. You can use a lined baking sheet and set a grill rack on top. Brush some butter or olive oil on the grill so the chicken won’t stick
- In a small bowl, mix together all the seasoning except for paprika and then divide in half
- Add paprika to one half and mix this well into the chicken pieces. Set aside.
- Take the other half of the seasoning and mix with almond flour in a bowl
- In another bowl, whisk together egg and almond milk
- Taking one chicken piece at a time, dip in egg and milk mixture and coat in flour mixture and set on a plate. You can make this process go quickly by using one hand to dip the chicken in the egg and using your second hand to handle the chicken in the flour. Let the chicken sit for 10 minutes
- Coat each chicken pieces in flour again (not the egg!) and set on the grilling tray
- Drizzle butter or olive oil over all the chicken pieces
- Bake for 40 minutes or until chicken pieces are nice and brown and cooked through
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My husband and I had this last night, and he proclaimed it to be his favorite homemade meal of all time! Delicious…great crunch and spice, and the chicken was very moist. Thank you!
Erin, thank you so much for the wonderful feedback! 🙂
Oh yeah. We (Erin and I) just made it again for the 3rd time! Came out prefect again! Love it!
So happy to hear it worked out for you 🙂
My husband is from Texas and LOVES fried chicken and considers himself a fried chicken connoisseur. Alas, he was diagnosed with colon cancer last year so bye bye grains and fried food. Although we’ve eaten very clean and healthy for years, he did love his fried chicken. So I made this tonight and he was so happy. He asked me if I made it to the recipe and I replied yes (most of the time I modify but this sounded excellent as is) and he told me that I just had to let you know that this is an excellent recipe and definitely a keeper for us. He also asked me to make sure that I forward the link to your site to our pals. And I sure will. Thank you so much Crunch Mama!
Paulette, I am so happy to hear your husband liked this and is still able to enjoy one of his favorite foods despite his dietary restrictions!
This has now become a family favorite!! I love your recipes. Keep ’em comin!!
I used a rack, but the bottom turned out mushy. I flipped them and cooked for another 10 min, and they were perfect. What do you think? Too much wash?
Could be, or the heat/air flow under the rack. But glad you found a workaround that worked out for you!
Oh, also. They were insanely delicious. I have been on a diet and missing the good stuff. This took care of the cravings.
I’m so glad 😀
LOVED this recipe and I have been sharing it with anyone who asks. I used a mix of Quinoa and Gluten Free All Purpose flour for this – I think it will work well as a non-gluten free version (with regular flour) as well, but it might be because of the lightness of the flour choosen that makes it detectible.
Also, I didn’t have a grilling tray, but used a regular bake pan, and turned it over half way. Grill tray, open on both sides you wouldn’t have to.
Make sure you let it cool and it will be super crunchy! Even better day two.
Laura – you are right, you can use regular flour too (although we don’t consume wheat :-S)
OMG! We made this for our Fourth of July picnic yesterday.
What an explosion of flavors in my mouth. I’m wheat-free and I’m gonna start checking out all your other recipes.
Happy Fourth!
So glad you liked it
wowee!
Would love to feature this particular recipe in a future blog, as it’s exactly what I’ve been waiting to find! Yay to paleo fried chicken! =0)
I’m so glad you liked it 😀 It is a favorite in this house
sounds yummy! How would coconut flour and coconut milk hold up instead of the almond flour and almond milk?
Coconut flour can be very dense so I wouldn’t use the same amount but definitely worth a try. The coconut milk will work just like the almond milk
Hi. My 11 year old son was diagnosed with Celiacs about six months ago. We have been learning and trying new things as a whole family. All my kids love fried chicken strips but I hate to fry stuff very often but I have yet found a recipe that actually delivers what it says it will. I am going to try this recipe for my family’s Sunday dinner get together. I am going to use boneless skinless chicken breasts, just because that’s what my kids like. I don’t have any almond milk. I’m apprehensive to buy some again because when I bought it before, none of us could drink it. Do you think I could use Lactaid milk with no major issues? Also, is there anything else you would suggest that I do differently since my chicken won’t be the type you used?
Hi Tammy
Coconut milk may work better. I am not familiar with lactaid milk. The effect it might have is maybe a little bit on the taste side and whether it will make it too watery for the flour to stick to the chicken.
As for the chicken breast strips – white meat tends to cook faster than dark meat so you may need to take them out of the oven a bit sooner. Also if they are thin strips, that will reduce the cooking time even more. That would be the only difference from cooking the larger dark meat pieces.
Please let me know how it turns out!
Maureen, I don’t like the taste of almond milk, either, to drink, but use it for cooking, and buy it in the small 4-packs so that I don’t have to open much at a time….you might consider that, as it adds much better flavor to foods than some of the milk substitutes.
guess i should have looked at the pictures. you don’t say to season the chicken first was just going thru the steps.
Whoa this was delicious!!!! I do suggest though that you break up the step 4 into 2 steps. I didn’t see at first that you are supposed to season the chicken its kinda hidden in the step. I’m not the only one who made that mistake too. I seasoned it aferwards dipping in the almond flour the first time. OMG Delish!
OK, you hooked me. That chicken came out AWESOME! I’m going to start working through you website. Just one question regarding this recipe. (I’m not much of a cook). It look like your crust has a good grip on the chicken, mine slipped off , separated from the chicken very easy. I baked thighs, too fatty? Very minor issue. Thanks, your great!
Warmest regards, josh
This was amazing! I decreased salt by half, but that was the only change. My husband loved it as well. Perfect seasonings, just enough spice to be interesting. Definitely will be making it again …. and again … 🙂
My son had to start eating gluten free, and i found this recipe while searching for gf fried chicken. Everyone loved it. I tweaked it a little and used pecans and gf flour mixed, but it was awesome.
thanks
I’ve made this recipe… I’m solo so I did one chicken breast. didn’t measure the seasonings (Cajun seasoning, white pepper, garlic powder, curry powder and braggs Sprinkle)- didn’t have almond flour- used coconut flour. I cooked the breast for about an hour (it was very thick and I was nervous)- DELICIOUS. I was happy that the chicken was juicy and the coating had a little crunch to it. I will definitely use this again for homemade chicken nuggets or strips and also fish.
This was phenomenal! I have tried a lot of gf oven fried chicken recipes & they have never been great. This was fantastic. Even my kids loved it! Thank you 🙂
I made your recipe last night and was delicious tasting! We would have liked it crispier though. I followed the recipe exactly.. I used a cookie sheet and rack for cookies because I don’t have a grilling pan. Not sure how that is different or if that made the difference? When I tried to turn the pieces with tongs some breading came off. Maybe different style tong with pointier ends? I baked it 40 minutes and checked the internal temperature for doneness. So how to get a crispier crust is my question? I definitely want to make this again as my granddaughter and I are on gluten and dairy free diets. My hubby didn’t know it was almond flour till I told him. He loved it and I’m sure everyone will!
Hi! A little late to the party, but found your delish recipe yesterday and wanted you to know that teff works also great as a flour substitute. Thank you so much for this recipe. Am glad I can be GF and still make fried chicken!
Has anyone tried this for making chicken strips instead of fried chicken I have a very picky 5 year old who needs gluten free, also can this be made up then frozen afterwards
I’m following the whole 30 program due to digestion issues and searched pintrest for a good whloe 30 chicken recipe and this one came up. Absolutely delicious. My husband is not a fan of chicken, his comments…..DELICIOUS!! Yeah…..I scored. This recipe is definitely a keeper. Thanks so much for sharing.
I used this recipe last night. My chicken didn’t come out as pretty as yours and the coating didn’t stick well (it fell off), but it was delicious!! Even my husband was raving about it and he does NOT like anything healthy. I have a huge bag of Almond Flour and didn’t know what to do with it. This is a recipe I’ll definitely use again. Thank! 🙂
My only issue with this recipe is it was way, way too salty for me. Next time I will cut the amount of salt in half. The chicken was delicious other than that.
Mine didn’t turn out crunchy enough. Fell off on top & gummy on bottom. Don’t know what I did wrong. It tasted good though!
I’m currently doing this recipe right now! My house smells amazing! Can’t wait to taste, overall perfect instructions! Can’t wait for my family to dig in!
Been eating healthy over a month and we all know that healthy isn’t always a pretty meal lol but this was amazing! Thank you!
What is considered cajun spices?
I came to stay with my niece to be nanny to her two-month-old for a month. They live in Mississippi, and her husband is very picky about his food. My niece has celiac disease and I am gluten free, too. I tried out your recipe. It made all the difference in my niece’s husband accepting me into their home. The baby’s just about to turn three, and his dad is still talking about this chicken.