Chicken lovers go gaga over this recipe

By Sarah Fritschner
Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal

Perhaps the best recipes are the ones that are handed across a back fence, over a water cooler or via a fax machine, from one friend to another. These recipes come with strong recommendations, elaborate and mouthwatering descriptions and reassuring details about how easy it is to prepare.

Let me share a great recipe with you. It's exceptional not only because it tastes so good, but because it has a considerable pedigree. It was passed from Jean Anderson — the Southern author of more than 20 cookbooks — to Sara Moulton — executive chef at Gourmet magazine and host of a TV cooking show.

Moulton is so warm and reassuring that I'm inclined to trust everything she says, but I was bowled over by her introduction to the "Oven-Fried Chicken" recipe she credits to Anderson.

"I have never met a chicken lover who wasn't nuts for it, kids and grown-ups alike," she writes in "Sara Moulton Cooks at Home" (Broadway, $29.95). It is, she says, the most requested recipe on her TV show, "Cooking Live," on the Food Network.

Her caution: Do not use "Parmesan" cheese from a green can. "It tastes like sawdust." Use freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

This is not a low-calorie recipe.

Jean Anderson's Oven-fried Chicken

• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cups freshly made bread crumbs
• 2/3 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 (3 1/2 pound) chicken, cut into 10 pieces (or all thighs, wings or breasts, if desired)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine butter and garlic in small saucepan. Heat over medium-high heat until butter has melted. Pour into large bowl. Cool to room temperature.

Mix bread crumbs, cheese, salt and pepper in large bowl. Dip each chicken piece, one at a time, into melted garlic butter. Transfer to bread crumb mixture. Turn until coated on all sides.

Arrange chicken in one flat layer on large baking sheet. Drizzle on any of the remaining melted butter. Bake until lightly browned and just cooked through, 50 to 60 minutes.

Serves four to six.