Oven-Fried Chicken

I love Wednesdays! I love them because it means I get to read the cooking section of our local paper, and most of the times I find one if not a few recipes that I carefully tear out of the paper and save for later use. Well. It's officially June and I'm now writing about this recipe (dated back from March), although I made it at the end of April... not bad. I have some recipes that have been saved that are dated much older than this recipe. In any event, I digress. I had never used five-spice powder and to my surprise it's not a common spice that you can find at any grocery store. I had to go to Whole Foods to find this spice. The spice consist of star anise, cinnamon, cloves, ground fennel, and sichuan pepper. Five spice powder is primarily used in cantonese style cooking and utilized with most fatty meats such as pork and duck. The spice along with the honey is really what makes this chicken spectacular! This was a wonderful non-fried chicken. It had the sweet and savory to it and the crispiness instantly made me not miss fried chicken one bit.  Tip: I want to note that my chicken started darkening quickly while being cooked at 450 degrees. I lowered my temperature down by 50 degrees to prevent severely burnt chicken! 


Source: Orlando Sentinel 3/16/2011, adapted from Family Circle
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 45
Servings: 8


Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups pank crumbs
1 tsp five-spice powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup honey
1 tbsp warm water
1 tbsp lemon juice
8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts


Directions:
1. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Line rimmed baking pan with foil; oat rack with cooking spray and place in pan. 


2. Mix panko crumbs, five-spice powder and salt. Whisk honey, water and juice. Dip chicken in honey mixture, draining excess. Coat in pank mixture; pressing to adhere. Place on rack. Back 15 minutes; coat with cooking spray. Bake 30 minutes.