Oven Fried Chicken with Sweet and Spicy Sauce

Today’s Oven Fried Chicken with Sweet and Spicy Sauce features a moist and tender interior, with a thick, crispy coating. However, the real treat is in the sauce, which is equal parts sweet, spicy, and savory. This chicken is best served as a weekend indulgence alongside things like dumplings or stir-fried vegetables, or as the star of a game-day party.

Oven baking the chicken saves on cleanup, but what’s best about this recipe is that it uses only simple, affordable ingredients. The sauce is a simple mix of chili paste, soy sauce, duck sauce, and red pepper, and mixes up in just seconds flat. The sauce also keeps in the fridge, meaning it never goes to waste.

Now, without further introduction, let’s make some chicken.

Recipe Overview – What to Expect

Okay, if you’ve read this far, you likely have a few questions left. You probably want to know how hard the recipe is to make, what the process is like, or what it pairs well with it. For the answer to those questions and more, read on.

Taste and Texture: Moist and tender, coated with a thick, crispy crust, this recipe is quintessential baked chicken at its best. In terms of taste, we’ve got sweet and spicy notes courtesy of the sauce, with just a hint of background smokiness.

Difficulty Level: Moderate. Simple yet tedious, straightforward yet involved, this recipe is the textbook definition of ‘moderate difficulty.’ As with any baked chicken recipe, the most difficult and tedious part of the process is dredging the chicken, which can be messy. That said, prepping the sauce couldn’t be easier. Just combine a few basic ingredients, mix, and you’re done.

Prep Process:

1. Marinate: The recipe starts off simple. Mix vinegar and milk, and soak the chicken for a few hours in the fridge. Do ‘not’ skip this step. In fact, I would argue that this is the most important part of the recipe, as it ensures the chicken doesn’t dry out through baking.
2. Coat: After soaking, we dredge the chicken in all-purpose flour, an egg wash, and then back in the flour. I’ll be honest here and admit that there’s no getting around that this process can be messy and tedious.
3. Bake: After dredging, we place chicken on parchment lined baking sheets, drizzle with vegetable oil or olive oil, and bake.
4. Sauce and Garnish: To wrap things up, we mix the sauce, drizzle it on the chicken, then garnish with sesame seeds and scallions, and we’re done.

Pairings: What you want to consider most when pairing this recipe is not the chicken itself, but rather the sweet and spicy sauce. With that in mind, my go-to pairings would be dumplings and stir-fried vegetables, or maybe spring rolls. You can’t go wrong with a side of white sticky rice, or leafy green salads. A pickled cucumber salad would also be a delicious, and I just so happen to have a recipe for that!

Ingredient Checklist – Everything You’ll Need

We’re using only simple, easy to find ingredients to prepare today’s recipe. Here’s a list of what you’ll need, along with notes, tips, and relevant substitutions.

For the Chicken:

• 1 whole chicken - cut into serving pieces
  • Tip: While I’m starting with a whole chicken, feel free to use pre-cut pieces. This is purely preference.
  • Substitution: Feel free to get creative, as today’s recipe works with both pork or beef. Just be sure to account for the differences in cook times!
• 1½ cups milk
  • Tip: I do recommend using whole fat milk, to better infuse the chicken with moisture.
  • Substitution: I do ‘not’ recommend skim milk. That said, feel free to use your milk-substitute of choice if need be.
• 2 tbs. vinegar
  • Tip: For this recipe, I do recommend using plain white vinegar or rice vinegar.
  • Note: If you’re wondering ‘why’ we’re using vinegar it’s because it helps break down the meat’s connecting tendons, tenderizing the meat.

For the Coating:

• 1½ cups flour
  • Tip: All-purpose flour is all you’re looking for here.
  • Substitution: Naturally, your gluten-free flour of choice also works.
• 1 cup milk
  • Tip: I do recommend whole milk for the added fat.
  • Substitution: Yes, the non-dairy milk of your choice can be substituted in if need be.
• 2 eggs
  • Tip: Beat the eggs thoroughly to ensure even coating on the chicken.
• 1 tsp. salt
  • Tip: Plain table salt is all you’re looking for here.
• 1 tsp. coarse ground black pepper
  • Tip: While freshly ground black pepper offers the best aromatics, this is not a recipe where I would bother fussing with grinding my own. Pre-ground works just fine for this recipe.
• Vegetable oil for drizzling
  • Tip: Drizzling with oil is not something we do just to look fancy. That little bit of extra fat helps create a crispy exterior, which in turn seals in moisture.
  • Substitution: Feel free to use the oil of your choice, as long as it has a sufficiently high smoke point. That said, I do recommend using a flavor-neutral oil for this.
• Sesame seed - for garnish (optional)
  • Tip: No need to fuss with toasting the sesame seeds, as they are purely for garnish.
• Scallions - for garnish (optional)
  • Tip: I do recommend slicing them thinly, as we don’t want to be biting down on chunks of scallions, we only want them as a garnish for a pop of color.

Sweet and Spicy Sauce:

• ½ cup duck sauce
  • Substitution: I really don’t recommend trying to replace the duck sauce, as I consider it the base of the recipe. That said, if you ‘must’ replace the duck sauce, I would recommend opting for a good quality apricot or plum preserve, though neither will deliver the intended consistency.
• 1 tbs. soy sauce
  • Tip: Yes, low-sodium soy sauce will work just fine.
  • Substitution: There isn’t really an ideal substitute for soy sauce that isn’t itself a type or form of soy sauce. You could try tamari if you ‘must’ replace the soy sauce.
• 1 tbs. balsamic vinegar
  • Substitution: Red wine vinegar works fine here if preferred.
• 1½ tsps. sesame oil
  • Tip: Toast the sesame seeds if desired for a nuttier flavor, but it is entirely unnecessary.
• 1 tsp. Korean red pepper flakes (gochugaru)
  • Substitution: You can probably get away with standard red pepper flakes, but gochugaru delivers a subtle sweetness and background smokiness or rich chili flavor that really can’t be replicated.
• 1 tsp. chili garlic sauce (or sambal)
  • Tip: Feel free to adjust the amount according to your heat preference.
  • Substitution: Any decent chili paste or sambal works just fine here.

Tips for Oven Baking Chicken

1. Marinate for Moistness
   • One of the pitfalls of oven baking is that it can dry out the chicken. To guard against this, marinate the chicken, as we’re doing today. For today’s recipe, I do recommend a more flavor neutral marinade, such as the milk and vinegar we suggest in the recipe card. Timing for the marinating is also important, I do recommend letting the chicken soak for at least a few hours.
2. Meat Thermometer
   • As I’ve recommended in other posts, a meat thermometer really is your best friend when it comes to getting your cooking times just right. Do note, that chicken is considered done when it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. Don’t skip the drizzle!
   • As mentioned above, drizzling with olive oil is not something we do just to look fancy. On the contrary, drizzling with added oil helps to both crisp the skin and retain moisture. Don’t skip the drizzle!
4. Parchment Paper
   • This is my number one kitchen hack. No, really, I use parchment paper whenever I can, as it really helps streamline the cleanup process. I’d much rather simply toss away a sheet of parchment paper than scrub down baking sheets. Not fun.
5. Don’t Overcrowd the Pan
   • Do not overcrowd the pan. Leave at least a half an inch of space between chicken pieces. Why? Because overcrowding traps steam, and as the steam evaporates it will make the chicken soggy. And no one wants soggy chicken.
6. Let it Rest
   • I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to let the chicken rest after it’s done baking. This resting process allows the juices to redistribute through the meat, which in turns moistens the chicken.
7. Even Pieces
   • This should go without saying, but larger pieces of chicken take longer to cook, while smaller pieces cook faster. Thus, try to group the large pieces and small pieces on separate sheets so that they can be removed separately when they are done.

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And that’s our Oven Baked Chicken with Sweet and Spicy Sauce! If you have any questions or suggestions be sure to let us know in the comments below. We always love hearing from you!

Happy Cooking!