“Zapp’s” Crusted Baked Chicken

I absolutely love finding new ways to cook chicken. Most of the time, we try a recipe once and we’re like eh, not doing that one again. But, once in a while, we find ourselves a keeper. I was a little skeptical of this chicken recipe, because we just don’t have the best luck making baked boneless chicken into something flavorful. However, this recipe called for kettle chips and well, they know how to make kettle chips down here in Louisiana!

Zapp’s chips are sort of a staple here. My favorite flavor is the Spicy Crawtators, which is reminiscent of the flavors you get from a crawfish boil. If I could send all of y’all a bag of Zapp’s chips, I would. They’re just that good. So, it was a no-brainer to use this flavor for this chicken. It just made for the perfect coating. Now, while potato chips aren’t the healthiest, I’m sure this chicken is better for you than eating fried chicken! (Sorry Popeye’s…) I served this with some mashed potatoes, since there’s nothing like dipping your chicken in mashed potatoes. 🙂

Note: While I’m using Zapp’s in this recipe, if you want to make this recipe and Zapp’s aren’t in your store, you can use any spicy kettle chip.

Different note: Zapp’s has no clue who I am, so while it sounds like this is a promotional post, I swear it isn’t at all.

Zapp’s Crusted Baked Chicken
Source: adapted from My Life as a Mrs.

Ingredients:

• 2 large boneless chicken breasts
• 1 bag of spicy kettle chips
• 1 cup low fat buttermilk
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. Tony Chachere’s (or any other cajun seasoning)
• pinch of cayenne pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Slice the chicken breasts in half, thickness-wise to result in 4 pieces of chicken. Pound out the chicken to an even 1/2 inch thickness.
3. In a gallon size ziploc bag, pour the buttermilk in and add the spices. Close the bag and give it a good shake to distribute the spices. Add the chicken to the buttermilk mixture and allow it to marinate for 10 minutes.
4. In the meantime, crush your kettle chips to a flaky looking consistency and place the crushed chips in an 8×8 pan.
5. Place a metal (oven safe) cooling rack inside of a rimmed foil-lined cookie sheet. Take the chicken pieces out one at a time and sort of shake off the excess buttermilk while still in the bag. Then, pat the chicken in the pan to coat with chips and flip to coat each side well with the crushed chips. Place on a baking sheet. Repeat with the other three pieces.
6. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.