I call this recipe Chicken Fried Chicken even
though it’s baked. I used to call it Herb Roasted Chicken which is
more accurate, but when people asked me about it I found myself
saying it’s kind of like Chicken Fried Chicken, only it’s baked.
It’s one of the best café recipes and it’s incredibly easy. The
most important part is brining the chicken which makes it tender
and moist. *see note
Brining solution
1/3 cup salt
½ cup sugar
1 qt water
6 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
1 cup flour
6 Eggs – well beaten
1 box Stove top stuffing – crushed to fine crumbs
1 packet of pepper gravy – prepare according to instructions
Dissolve salt and sugar in one qt. of warm water
Soak the chicken in the brine for 1 – 1 ½ hours
Remove from brine, rinse well and pat dry with paper towel
Place chicken between two sheets of plastic wrap and gently pound
with a mallet or ruling pin to a ½ inch thickness
Dredge chicken in flour, then dip in the beaten eggs and then coat
with the bread crumbs
Bake in a 400° oven for 20 minutes – time may vary with your oven
or amount of chicken.
Serve with gravy
* The following paragraph is from
http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/meat/INT-what-makes-flavor.html
and explains the science of Brining
Brining meat (that is, putting meat into a salt-water solution)
adds moisture to the meat through osmosis. Osmosis happens when
water flows from a lower concentration of a solution to a higher
concentration through a semipermeable membrane. In meat, this
membrane is the plasma membrane that surrounds the individual
cells. When meat is placed in a brine, the meat's cell fluids are
less concentrated than the salt water in the brining solution.
Water flows out of the cells in the meat and salt flows in. The
salt then dissolves some of the fiber proteins, and the meat's
cell fluids become more concentrated, thus drawing water back in.
Brining adds salt and water to the cells so that when the meat is
cooked and water is squeezed out, there is still water left in the
cells because water was added before cooking.
