Instructions

1. Wash your chicken and pat it dry. Chicken breasts or tenderloins are natural choices, but don’t overlook broiler chicken pieces, which contain juicier and more flavorful dark meat.

2. Set up a “chicken dipper” station in your kitchen. Season some flour with paprika, seasoning salt and pepper in one bowl. Blend several eggs with a little water in a second bowl. Pour some potato flakes, a little flour, garlic powder and parsley flakes in the third bowl. Alternatively, use melted butter or ranch dressing in place of the eggs. You may wish to thin the dressing with a little water before coating the chicken to make it easier to work with. You can even make the second bowl a complement for the potato flakes by filling it with sour cream, or low-fat sour cream if you’re counting calories.

3. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a baking dish with nonfat cooking spray. Cover each chicken piece in flour, dunk it in the second bowl and then coat it with mashed potato mixture. Set each piece in the baking dish. Spray the top of each piece of chicken with nonfat cooking spray, if you wish, to add extra crunch to the exterior and to help keep the coating in place.

4. Bake the chicken for about 50 minutes, covering it with foil for the first 25 minutes to seal in the juices and then uncovering it for the last 25 minutes to brown it. Check the internal temperature of the thickest piece of chicken — such as a drumstick — with an instant-read thermometer. It should register 165 F once it’s fully cooked.