Fuss-Free Southern Fried Chicken
This Fuss-Free Southern Fried Chicken is made in the oven, so you can skip the mess and avoid hovering over the stove without sacrificing that classic fried taste. I use a ranch dressing and buttermilk coating that keeps the chicken ultra-tender on the inside while delivering a perfectly crunchy exterior. Simple, delicious, and great with a side of homemade mashed potatoes!
A Quick Look At The Recipe
- Recipe Name: Fuss-Free Southern Fried Chicken
- Serves: 4
- Main Ingredients: bone-in skin-on chicken pieces such as breasts, legs, or leg quarters, oil for frying, all-purpose flour*, ranch dressing mix*, buttermilk*
- Why You'll Love It: With a ranch dressing and buttermilk coating that delivers tender chicken underneath a crunchy skin, this easy and fuss-free southern fried chicken recipe is finger-licking good!
Crispy Oven-Baked Fried Chicken
Few dishes from Southern cuisine are as universally beloved as fried chicken. Every Southerner has their own recipe in their back pocket, and mine is a little different. It’s oven-fried, but not how most folks expect it!
You see, the chicken is baked to resemble being fried… that’s where the “fuss-free” comes in. Yep, this fried chicken recipe is going to blow your mind, because today we’re frying the chicken in oil, but in your oven.
The beauty of this is that once you bread your chicken in a delicious mix of ranch dressing and buttermilk, it’s pretty much hands-off from there! So rather than watching over a frying pan, you’re free to set the table, make some side dishes, or drink a nice glass of Southern sweet tea.
It comes out tender and moist on the inside, wrapped in the crunchiest, tastiest skin imaginable. Pair it with some oven-baked mac and cheese, and you have a winning Southern supper!
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Oil (use a high smoke point oil)
- Flour (self-rising flour also works fine)
- Ranch dressing mix (or salt and pepper, or any seasoning you like!)
- Buttermilk (any kind of milk will do)
- Bone-in, skin-on chicken (can be chicken breast or chicken legs)
Tips Before You Get Started
- Want extra heat? Mix two tablespoons of hot sauce with the buttermilk.
- Make sure your oil is hot enough before you start frying! I can’t stress this enough. When the oil is at the right temperature, it sears the breading the moment the chicken hits the pan, giving you that perfect crispy coating. If the oil isn’t hot enough, your chicken will just soak up all that oil and end up greasy instead of crunchy.
- If you can’t fit all your chicken in the baking dish at once, just do it in two batches. Giving each piece enough room helps the coating stay crispy and lets the heat circulate evenly. If you overcrowd the pan, you’ll trap steam and end up with a soggy coating after all that hard work!
How to Make Fuss-Free Southern Fried Chicken
1. Heat the Oil
To start, add about ½ inch of oil to the bottom of your skillet and put it in the oven. Turn the oven to 450°F so the oil heats as the oven heats up.
2. Dredge Your Chicken
While we wait for the oil to get hot, place your flour in a shallow dish and season it with the ranch dressing mix or your seasoning of choice. Mix that up well.
Next, pour some buttermilk into another dish.
Place the chicken in the buttermilk first, coating each piece. Then dip it in the breading mixture, rolling it around until fully coated.
Then dip it again in the milk, and then in the seasoned flour mixture once more. Repeat this process with the remaining chicken.
Tip: This double-dipping method creates an extra-thick, crispier coating that locks in moisture and flavor, making your fried chicken even more delicious.
3. Fry in the Oven
Take your hot, hot, hot skillet with the hot, hot, hot oil out of the oven (with good protection for yourself!) and carefully add your chicken pieces.
They will begin to bubble and sizzle as soon as they go in. Try not to let them touch, but do what you gotta do!
Place this in the oven and “fry chicken” for 40 minutes. This is when you can go do whatever you’d rather be doing 😉
4. Flip the Chicken
After 40 minutes, carefully remove the skillet from the oven, turn all the pieces over, and put it back in for 15 minutes.
5. Drain & Serve
When done, remove from the oven and place each piece on a paper towel-lined plate to drain for a few minutes.
Enjoy this fuss-free Southern fried chicken recipe, folks!
Storage
Store chicken leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. For best results, reheat either in the oven or air fryer.
Southern Fried Chicken FAQs
Honestly, anything you love! I switch it up every single time depending on what I’m feeling. This time around I went with ranch dressing mix, but my go-to combo is garlic powder, paprika (or cayenne pepper), parsley, salt, and pepper. If you want to keep it simple, poultry seasoning or seasoned salt work great too.
Many recipes tell you to brine your chicken before you fry it. I don’t for several reasons.
1. I don’t want to.
2. Typically, I don’t usually plan my meals far enough in advance.
3. I don’t have time. When I’m ready to cook supper, I’m ready right then, and I generally don’t lollygag around in the kitchen hours beforehand lookin’ for something to do.
4. I can’t stand the thought of wasting buttermilk (what a lot of folks brine it in).
Granny didn’t do it.
5. See #1.
Having said this, if you prefer to brine your chicken, I think that is awesome, and I salute you. Do it your way. Soak the chicken pieces in a buttermilk marinade in the fridge for at least six hours (or overnight) to make the flour stick better.
You can serve your fried chicken with a variety of different sides. Options include mashed potatoes, creamed corn, mac and cheese, coleslaw, cornbread, parmesan oven fries, buttermilk biscuits, green beans, or potato salad.
Nothing makes me happier than hearing that a recipe was a hit at the dinner table! If you tried this one, leave a star rating and a comment. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Fuss-Free Southern Fried Chicken
Ingredients
- 3-4 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces such as breasts, legs, or leg quarters
- Oil for frying
- 2 cups all-purpose flour*
- 1-2 packages ranch dressing mix*
- 1-2 cups buttermilk*
Instructions
- Pour oil to a depth of ¼-½ inch into a deep cast-iron skillet or Dutch oven. Place in the oven and preheat to 450°F. It is very important that your skillet be in your oven while it preheats!Oil for frying
- In a shallow dish, stir together flour and seasonings (either ranch dressing mix, salt and pepper, or seasonings of your choice).2 cups all-purpose flour*, 1-2 packages ranch dressing mix*
- In another shallow baking dish, pour about ¼-inch of milk.1-2 cups buttermilk*
- Dip each chicken piece in the milk to coat all sides, then into the flour mixture, then into the milk again, and then into the flour mixture again. Place on a platter when done.3-4 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces
- Five minutes after the oven is preheated, remove your skillet and carefully (using tongs) place each piece of chicken in the skillet, positioning them so that they don't touch.
- Return to the oven for 40 minutes. Remove from the oven, use tongs to flip each piece of chicken over, and return to the oven for 15 minutes more.
- Remove chicken and place on a paper towel-lined platter. Enjoy hot or cold.
Girl! This is awesome!!! I can’t wait to try it out. I have a smart girlfriend who cooks her FRIED OKRA in the oven using this exact method (cast iron skillet and cooking oil). I usually only fry boneless breasts/cutlets. My family will enjoy having this, they miss my grandmothers stovetop, pan-fried chicken. Love you, your recipes & tips and most of all your stories!
I hope your family enjoys it Ginger!!!
Lazy cook that I am, this sounds like a super great way to “fry” chicken. Can’t wait to try it! However, I AM lazy – and I am curious, too. Does this method makes a big spatterly mess in your oven?
It doesn’t splatter at all Gloria!!
P.S. I want to to do that with okra now!
Christy:
Oh no! This splattered all over my oven. It tastes delicious, but not sure it’s worth cleaning the oven. Thank you for all you do
i never liked the frying cause of the oil. what do you do with the oil after you use it? some people let it cool , strain it and use it again but storage space is an issue with me. that three legged chicken looks delicious.
I don’t fry often but when I do I like to use the oil twice so I usually try to fry two or three things that week. One day I might make this chicken, then a day or two later, I’ll make fried okra or fried potatoes, and if enough oil is left I’ll use it to make Chicken planks over the weekend. That way I get to reuse it but don’t have to hold onto it for long 🙂
Yum! This looks really good! I don’t have the cast iron skillet, but I do have the cast iron dutch oven! I was planning on making a roast chicken w/dressing and mashed/gravy this week as well as chicken and dumplings. But I know hubby likes fried chicken, I just hate the mess! I’m pretty sure he will eat chicken 3 times in 7 days though with the varieties! Going to the grocery store tomorrow!
I hope he enjoys it, and I can’t wait to hear what you think of the recipe Sheryle!
I never buy chicken with the skin or bones, nor do I fry chicken not because I don’t want it but because I can’t fry chicken it just doesn’t turn out right it taste like my moms or my sister’s no matter what I do it isn’t very good to me. So I quit trying a few years ago. But I think that I have to try this way. A friend of mine tells me that it is just me and that I miss moms cooking and I do miss it. But nobody fried chicken like my mom she always made it for me in my birthday when I was home and when I moved away she always made it when I came home.
I hope it turns out fabulous for you Melanie, I am not sure anything ever turns out as god as a Mama can make it, but I am hoping this comes close.
Thanks, Christy for another wonderful recipe! I have a ‘nice’ collection of cast iron pieces now and always am keeping my eye open at our local goodwill store. My sister was just talking to me yesterday and she was ‘chewing on her husband’s ear’ again for messing up her cast iron skillet. A few years ago he put it into the dishwasher and she still ‘chews’ on him for that, lol. But a few days ago he messed it up while cooking and she was fussing and fussing over cleaning it and was using a brillo pad on her while we were talking. I screamed and she almost dropped the phone in the dishwater. I told her to throw that dang billo pad away! Lord O’ Mighty! I told her to heat up her burner, put a spoon of shortning in that pan and throw some plain old salt in it, to work that around with her spatula and it will work all those old bits and pieces of burnt food out. To let it cool a bit, scrap it all out and just rinse in hot water and put back on the burner or in the oven to dry. I also gave her another alternative if there was still some bits left in it. Then I told her to HIDE it from her hubby! lol
Oh my goodness, that poor pan! She better be thankful to have such a wonderful sister to keep her straight!
Hello Christy,, update on my sister’s pan: it was saved! lol She did the shortning & salt trick and it worked for her and the pan is ‘hidden’ in the oven (she says he NEVER opens or uses the oven). I was laughing and said, “ummmmm, for now, that is”. She just does not appreciate my sense of humor sometimes, lol.
What was the alternative method?
Hi Cyndi, the ‘alternative method’ would be to add some water to the skillet and heat it up to soften everything, and if that didn’t work to add a cup of coke to it. That is just for some really extreme burnt and stuck on good! But the oil and salt has ALWAYS worked for me, then just wipe that out, rinse and heat to just dry up the water or place in a warm oven upside down to dry.
LOVE this! Just one question. Does the oil splatter in the oven much while it is cooking?
It doesn’t splatter at all Paulette, it just gently bubbles.