Pastor Phil’s Chicken Fried Chicken

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.