Barbecue Oven Fried Chicken

Have you created your own recipe, and it turns out better than your wildest dreams?

Yeah, that happened to me today.

So do you remember my blogpost about The Good Bean? They make the most amazing dried chickpea snacks. Sea Salt. Cinnamon. CHOCOLATE. Thai Lemongrass.

Mesquite BBQ.

Now, the BBQ wasn't my most favorite of the ones that I tried, but they were okay. The BBQ flavor on them was slight, and I LOVE barbecue sauce. Post diagnosis (and pre weight loss) I used to put barbecue sauce on EVERYTHING. Chicken. Beef. Pizza. Mashed Potatoes.

So I had this crazy idea. What if I crushed the chickpeas and used that as a breading for oven fried chicken?

So gathering the chickpeas, some chicken and some San-J Asian BBQ sauce, I got cooking. I put 1/2 cup of The Good Bean BBQ chickpeas and put them in my spice grinder (which looks suspiciously like a coffee grinder.) I ground them until they were fine, but before it turned "mealy."

I had a 12 oz. chicken breast that I cut in half. I coated the chicken breasts in the chickpeas, then dipped them in about 3 tablespoons San J BBQ sauce, and then dredged it in the ground chickpeas again.

I baked the breasts in a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes, on top of a wire rack positioned on top of a cookie sheet. (I do this so the bottom cooks well instead of the coating getting all soggy.) After 20 minutes I pulled them out and tested it with my thermometer, and it was a bit underdone. I placed the breasts back in the oven, with the thermometer probe in it, and set my thermometer to go off when it reached 165.

****Important note- During the 20 minutes that the chicken was originally cooking, I also had a pan of potatoes and brussel sprouts that were roasting in the oven at the same time. If you have your chicken in the oven solo, it may be done at the end of the 20 minutes. I always encourage cooking meet with a thermometer probe in it to reach perfect cooking times.

So when it reached 165, I pulled the chicken out, served with my roasted potatoes and brussel sprouts (that had been tossed with a bit more oil, balsalmic vinegar, and a touch of honey AND an ounce of dried cranberries), and dinner was SERVED.

My husband's immediate reaction was a HUGE thumbs up. The chicken was SO incredibly moist, which can be hard to do when cooking with  boneless skinless chicken breasts. With every bite I kept thinking, "This is so good, I can't believe I made this!"

I have some Mesquite BBQ chickpeas left, and some more sauce, and some more chicken. You can bet that I'll be making this again soon!