Buttermilk Baked Chicken

 About a year ago, a local restaurant supply store had chicken breast and chicken quarters on sale for incredibly cheap. The catch? You had to buy in 40 pound cases. This store is also open to the public. So... I did what any deal-seeking person would do. I bought a case of chicken breast and two cases of quarters. The quarters were actually a mix of leg quarters, legs, and thighs. It probably will not shock anyone to know that I am still working my way through the quarters! I have my usual go-to recipes for chicken, but it's fun to try something new, too. This recipe sounded tasty, and I had a container of buttermilk languishing in the fridge. It actually called for chicken breast, but I'm working with what I have on hand, so out came the quarters. Once they were thawed, I saw that I had two whole quarters and two extra thighs. Not a problem, everybody's invited to this party! I like to do process pictures with these posts, but raw chicken just isn't very pretty so I skipped those pictures. I separated the legs from the thighs because they cook more evenly when they've been taken apart. I followed the recipe fairly closely otherwise. 

You start by melting some butter in the pan by placing it in the oven while it preheats. The recipe called for dredging the chicken in buttermilk, then in flour. Afterward, you place the pieces into the melted butter, cook for 25 minutes, flip the chicken, cook for another 10 minutes, then add a can of soup mixed with more buttermilk. The recipe calls for cream of mushroom, but the other person eating this doesn't like mushrooms. I have found that cream of celery makes a fine substitute for cream of mushroom. They taste extremely similar. The chicken was nice and tender, with a decently crispy outside.

I used my instant pot to make rice. I did 2 cups of rice, 2 cups of water. I also added a few shakes of salt, and a tablespoon-ish of butter. Then, I set the pressure to high for 5 minutes, and let it naturally release for 10 minutes. It turned out perfectly.

This may not look pretty, but it tasted really good. It's a little rich, so I might not use so much sauce on my serving next time. A little garlic powder and paprika would really take this dish over the top.