Best Baked Chicken
Juicy and flavorful baked chicken
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts, bone in, skin on
- 2 tsp butter, unsalted and softened
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 1/2 tsp dried thyme
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F (218 degrees C). If you have a roast setting on your oven, now would be a great time to use it. Otherwise, use the conventional setting.
- While the oven is preheating, cover a baking sheet in parchment paper and place your chicken on the parchment, leaving some space between each breast.
- Next, pat the chicken dry with a paper towel. Using your fingers, gently separate the chicken skin from the meat and spread 1/2 tsp of butter under the skin of each breast.
- In a small bowl, combine the last 5 ingredients to make your spice mix. Add 1/2 tsp of the spice mix under the skin of each breast and 1 tsp of the spice mix on top of the skin of each breast. Massage the spice mix onto the chicken to coat each piece evenly.
- Bake on the middle rack for 40-45 minutes, or until the internal temperature of each breast reaches 165 degrees F (74 degrees C) and the skin is golden and crisp. Serve as is or allow to cool and use in your favorite recipes!
Notes
- If you plan to use the chicken in other recipes, remove the crispy skin and shred the meat while still hot or allow it to cool and slice or dice.
- If using boneless, skinless chicken breasts, reduce the spice mix applied to each piece by half and reduce cooking time to 20-25 minutes, or until the chicken has reached 165 degrees F (74 degrees C) internally.
- Each breast will yield approx. 1 c. of shredded or chopped chicken