Tastes like fried chicken

I've been a bad little food blogger lately. I looked back at my recipe archive the other day and was astonished by the level of neglect. While I haven't been writing, I have been cooking (I swear I made more than two dishes in March!). I've even been experimenting with my own recipes...only to learn that I never measure ingredients. The problem with failing to measure is that it makes it really difficult to share a recipe you've created with friends. A dash of this, a pinch of that, season to taste is hardly enough direction. I know from experience. When I first started getting into cooking, those types of directions would create a great deal of nervousness and apprehension for me. I've made a few meals that I will try again. And I will try to be conscious of what exactly it is that I am putting into them. That way I can start to share some of my own kitchen creations...how exciting!

But in the meantime, back to borrowing others' fabulous meal ideas! I need two hands to count the number of times I've pulled this recipe up for dinner only to, for some reason or another, tuck it away for another time. I'm not sure why, but this Crispy Yogurt Chicken just spoke to me. Maybe it was the simple list of ingredients? Maybe it was the flirtation with Mediterranean flavors? I have a feeling it definitely had a lot to do with the word, "crispy." My attraction to crunch is 
hardly a secret. 

Here is Annie's ingredient list:  

Crispy Yogurt Chicken

Ingredients:

2 cups Panko bread crumbs

chicken legs (or thighs), bone-in

kosher salt

2 cups plain, unflavored yogurt

3 cloves garlic, minced

fresh parsley, finely chopped (to taste)

juice of one lemon

butter

Mine looked slightly different:

2 cups Panko bread crumbs

2 chicken breasts 

salt

2 cups plain, unflavored Greek yogurt

3 cloves garlic, minced

fresh parsley, finely chopped (to taste)

1/2 tablespoon white vinegar (out of lemons? Cut the amount of lemon juice the recipe requires in half and substitute with white vinegar).  

butter

I substituted chicken breasts for thighs because Eric is not a huge fan of dark meat. He will eat it IN food, but does not so much like having a hunk of it on his plate. Because breast meat is not bone-in, the cooking time changes a little...

I cut the chicken breasts in half and cooked them in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes with the foil on. Then, I removed the foil and cooked for 15 more minutes. The chicken came out very tender and the Panko bread crumbs were almost crispy enough. I would suggest turning on the broiler for the last five minutes of bake time to achieve the ultimate crisp! 

The only other problem I encountered was that I had FAR to much Greek yogurt. Common sense probably should have told me that before experience did, but, alas, it did not. 

1 cup plain Greek yogurt would definitely have been sufficient to coat the amount of meat I used. I could have reserved the other cup to make a nice cucumber yogurt sauce, but once I had dredged the raw chicken in the yogurt mix, that option was off the table...I hate wasting food. 

 

This dinner was yum, yum, YUM! I hope you give it a try, too!