Recently, I did a group project in my Applied Food Chemistry class about fat-modified food products. My group decided to do a “Southern” theme and made comfort-food favorites, like macaroni and cheese, greens, a breakfast frittata, peach cobbler and fried chicken.

Fried Chicken.

I was in charge of the chicken, so I decided to treat Andrew to a “two-for” in one week–fried chicken twice!

My group pitted Paula Deen’s Southern Fried Chicken against Ellie Krieger’s Honey-Crisp Oven Fried Chicken (from her cookbook in my collection, no less).

I started by making the traditional deep-fried version.

I served it with mashed sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts. The chicken turned out just like you would get at Popeye’s–crispy, light brown skin and perfectly moist.

A few nights later, I tackled Ellie’s oven-fried version. It relied on a buttermilk soak for tenderness, bone-in, skinless thighs for moisture and a bit of sweetness from honey. The “breading” was a heavily seasoned cornflake cereal mixture.

I served it with two cold salads: a potato salad and an apple, fennel and golden raisin salad similar to one I get at Wegmans a lot.

Our verdict: Ellie’s won! The healthier version was more flavorful and the crispy crust was just as pleasing. That, and no giant oil mess or quart of oil to dispose of. I would definitely make this again.

Here are a couple photos from the actual group project, which was about two weeks ago now.

Our class chose Ellie’s version too, by 57% percent. What can I say, she’s good.