An Old Favorite: Spicy Oven Fried Chicken

After a fairly full day at work and a stop at the GF's house to do dog duty I came home and reviewed what I had in the freezer as well as my dinner menu list. All of the kids were home for dinner which doesn't happen often these days so I needed to choose something that would feed us all. I still had a five pound bag of quarter chicken legs in the freezer so I grabbed that. My original plan of pairing this with coleslaw and escalloped corn got set by the wayside (no cabbage for slaw, kids vetoed corn idea) and I settled on butter crumb egg noodles and peas.
My very favorite recipe for "fried" chicken comes from a cookbook that has sat on my shelves for a long time, New Recipes from Quilt Country by Marcia Adams . I have over the years tweaked the seasonings called for to more suit our idea of what fried chicken should taste like and finally settled on a blend of McCormack's Rotisserie Chicken blend and a touch of red pepper flakes.

Spicy Oven Fried Chicken:
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup cracker meal (I subbed Panko bread crumbs)
1/2 cup corn meal
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp paprika
1 1 /2 tsp sage
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper  (I used 4 1/2 tsp of the McCormack's blend in place of the above spices)
1/4 tsp dried red pepper flakes
4-5 lbs. chicken (we all prefer quarter legs so that is what was used)
Combine oil and butter on a jelly roll pan and place in a preheated 375 degree oven to melt butter. Set aside.
Combine flour, cracker meal, cornmeal, and spices in a large bag. Roll chicken in oil/butter mixture then shake in bag to coat. Set aside on a paper towel or plate until all pieces of chicken are well coated.
Place coated chicken pieces on the pan skin side down. Bake for 45 minutes. Using a spatula turn chicken pieces over and bake an additional 5-10 minutes longer. Serve hot or cold (but texture is better if you do not refrigerate).