A guilty pleasure of mine is extra crunchy shake 'n' bake. Ridiculously easy and ridiculously tasty. Totally inappropriate for thekitchn.com.

Growing up, my mom made a recipe from Jane Brody's Good Food Book that involved dipping chicken in milk, then tossing in a bag with crushed cereal, parmesan cheese, and chopped parsley.

I also make a Patricia Wells recipe involving brushing chicken with a dijon mustard and red pepper combo, then dipping in egg, then coating with bread crumbs and dotting with butter before baking at high heat. Delicious cold.

That Jane Brody recipe sounds like my mom's "Chicken a Go-Go" recipe (should give you a clue what era it's from!), which I've also been craving lately.

You just melt diced onion in some butter, dip chicken pieces in it, then coat them in a mixture of breadcrumbs, S & P, and Parmesan cheese. Bake it up in the oven. Really good. We never had Shake n' Bake growing up because mom promised us this was way better.

Amanda Hesser, the NYT food writer, has a great oven fried chicken recipe that I've made many many times:

Judy Hesser's Oven Fried Chicken
http://www.leitesculinaria.com/recipes/cookbook/oven_chicken.html

My mom used to marinate chicken legs and thighs in italian dressing, roll them in cornflake crumbs and bake it. It was so good growing up.

I use the recipe from The Best Recipe, except that I use cornflake crumbs instead of melba toast crumbs. The secret to getting the coating crunchy seems to be misting the chicken pieces with olive oil before they go into the oven, and turning them and misting again halfway through baking time. I have even made bite-sized nuggets from this recipe, and they were a huge hit at my party.

I've marinated chicken in creamy salad dressing and then used either crushed croutons or stuffing mix for the coating.

I've made the EatingWell one before. It's a big hit at our house. The sesame seeds and marinade in buttermilk make it really wonderful. And the spraying of olive oil on before baking helps to make the coating nice and crunchy.

I always use the CooksIllustrated Melba Toast crumbs, and add lots of paprika, salt and pepper which turns out deliciously crunchy & savory.

We like the Cooking Light recipe that calls for marinating in buttermilk, then dipping in flour (I season with paprika, s&p, and ginger), spraying lightly with cooking spray (Pam), dipping again, and spraying again. Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet, I think at 425 or 450F. Crunchy and delicious!

The key is to dip the chicken in flour, then an egg wash, and dip in cornflake crumbs seasoned as you like. Then bake at 400 for twenty minutes - checking each piece with a digital thermometer to ensure it is done all the way through. Thick pieces will always take longer.

Nice and crispy every time.

My Aunt used to make this "off-the-back-of-the-box" baked chicken recipe where she would take a bag of potato chips and crush them up till they were crumbs about the size of panko bread crumbs, take chicken tenders and coat them in sour cream and them roll them in the crushed up potato chips and them bake them in the oven. AMAZING!
I tried to do a "healthier" version where I used non-fat greek style yogurt instead of sour cream and used baked potato chips instead of the regular kind and they turned out good. Very fast, easy, and satisfying. you could probably play with adding things like curry powder to the yogurt and other crumby coatings to get all kinds of flavorful variations. Now that I'm thinking about it, crushed up pretzels could be interesting.

I just made oven fried chicken yesterday! I like the cornflake method. Rub the chicken in dijon mustard then dredge it in cornflakes, olive oil, s, & p. It makes for a great light & crispy piece of chicken. Check out my recipe here.

@prairieportia: I can't thank you enough for passing along the Patricia Wells suggestion! I made it just the other night for a casual dinner party, and they were a HUGE hit!!! :D Trying it again tonight, but going to complicate things by marinading the chicken first in buttermilk..