Cheesy Oven-Fried Chicken

I've been having cravings for something quite cheesy lately, heh. There's always Nasi Goreng Cheese, I suppose, but I prefer something more ... "meaty". Pasta would have been best, but I don't really feel like having beef. (Haha, like *when* do I ever feel like eating beef? :P) I've made this particular recipe back in Brunei before, but that was only once, and almost two years ago besides. So when I "rediscovered" it in one of my books, I thought it would be nice to have it for dinner. Hehe. So here we go!

What you need:
3 chicken thighs
Salt
Black pepper
75g butter
1 small garlic clove, crushed
50g fresh white breadcrumbs (I used seasoned breadcrumbs from last time)
50g mature Cheddar cheese, finely grated

What you do:

1. Wipe the chicken pieces with a damp paper towel and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. (I added some seasoning under the skin as well)
   
2. Melt the butter slowly with the garlic in a saucepan.
3. Meanwhile, mix together the breadcrumbs, cheese and 1 teaspoon salt (I substituted with chicken stock granules), and spread in a shallow dish.
4. Brush the pieces of chicken all over with the melted butter, then press, one by one, into the breadcrumb mixture, turning to coat both sides. Press the crumbs in place.
5. Arrange the portions, skin side-up and side by side in a shallow baking dish. Scoop out the garlic and trickle the remaining butter evenly over the exposed chicken surfaces.
6. Bake, uncovered, in a preheated oven at 180 C for 35-40 minutes, until the juices run clear when the chicken is pierced with a skewer and the coating is crusty and golden-brown.

I found this in one of Ibu's old recipe books back in the days when I was starting to get an interest in cooking, hehe. I think it was back during the summer of my first year (2005), so that was about one and a half years ago. I can't quite remember how it was, but I remember it was quite messy to make, hehe. However, I didn't have much problems today, which was a nice surprise. More experience perhaps? ;) Hehe.

Okay, so the picture might not look like much, hehe. Partly my fault, since all my cheese was coarsely grated. You could probably get a prettier chicken if you use finely-grated cheese (which is annoying to make, by the way :P Unless you have one of those magic grater thingies)

Now, how was the dish, you ask? While it was cooking, it smelled ... very ... Parmesan-y, hehe. That would have been from the seasoned breadcrumbs, but if you do use plain fresh breadcrumbs, adding a tablespoon of Parmesan might be quite nice. Give it "oomph", as Hadi might say. I was planning to add Parmesan anyway, when I remembered I already did, haha.

The breadcrumb-cheese crust on the chicken was reaaaaaallllllyyy good. The cheese was all crispy and brown, and had that particular taste of slightly burnt cheese. I love that, hehe. Hadi used to melt some cheese in a microwave and cooked it until it was brown and crispy. I loved that, and this tasted almost exactly the same. I didn't actually taste the Parmesan (or the herbs for that matter) in it though. Which is weird, coz it smelled really strong, but oh well. Hadi and Justin (and I, of course) agreed that the chicken tasted really good. The flavour was really good~! I'm not quite so sure if it went well with the rice, but oh well. It was so flavoursome, that Hadi was able to finish his rice with less than half of his chicken....

Although... it was perhaps a bit *too* flavoursome - in a salty kind of way. I think I got too overexcited with the salt, haha, and sprinkled it much too liberally. I don't really work with salt much (prefer chicken stock) so I'm not really how much to add. Also, the breadcrumbs already had some salt anyway (which I forgot). Ad of course, the cheese was quite salty as well! So the chicken was a touch too salty, but nothing too extreme, and easy enough to modify, hehe. What was nice though, was that the seasonings permeated through almost the whole piece, even though I didn't marinate it at all. That was probably thanks to the seasonings under the skin, hehe. Such a good idea I had. :P So saltiness not withstanding, the chicken tasted really really good.

On a side note, we usually bake our chickens on a wire rack, but this time I didn't, since the butter was supposed to help "fry" the chicken in the oven, I think, hehe. The chicken juices were *very* yummy though. Salty, with a hint of chicken and cheese. *drool*

Cheese craving now satisfied, but now I feel like having chicken pie! Haha, or at least something with a crisp buttery pastry. *drools* Oh well, next time I guess. :D

Quote of the day: Many's the long night I've dreamed of cheese -- toasted, mostly.