Cheddar Baked Chicken

I decided tonight that it was necessary to take a small hiatus from pnuemonia, sinusitis, tuberculosis, surgical site infections, etc. to finally put up a blog. Sorry if I've been a little MIA for the past week or so.  I've got a HUGE infectious disease test coming up on Tuesday. And by HUGE I am not exaggerating. I have a 1-1/2-inch binder that is packed full of material for 1 EXAM over infectious diseases, and it has basically consumed my life other than sleeping, working out, and of course eating ;-) I promise that I will be back as long as I survive the exam next Tuesday!

Anyway, on to the chicken dish. I originally saved this recipe on allrecipes.com on recommendation from my mother. I've made it a couple times previously, and we really like it as well. It's nice for weeks like this because as long as I can remember to thaw out some chicken breasts, I can prepare the chicken in the time it takes the oven to preheat.

The original recipe calls for quite a bit of butter in coating the dish and also drizzling it over the chicken before baking. I didn't do either, and we didn't miss it. The topping gets crispy in the oven itself from the combinations of the coatings, so I couldn't really see a reason to add it. When I made it this time, I used white flour, but I see no reason why whole-wheat flour wouldn't work for a coating and may try this next time. Now back to meningitis... Enjoy!

(Printable Recipe)

Cheddar Baked Chicken - Adapted from allrecipes.com

1/4 c. all-purpose flour (or whole-wheat)

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 egg

1 Tbsp. skim milk

1/2 c. shredded Cheddar cheese

1/4 c. Italian bread crumbs

1/2 c. rice krispy cereal

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 8x8 baking dish with non-stick spray.

In a bowl, mix the flour, salt, black pepper, and garlic powder. In a separate bowl, beat together the egg and milk. In a third bowl, combine the cheese, Italian bread crumbs, and cereal. Dredge the chicken in the flour mixture, dip in the egg mixture, and press in the breadcrumb mixture. Place in the prepared baking dish.
Bake 35 minutes in the preheated oven until coating is brown and juices run clear.