Back when I was a kid there was a standard oven-fried chicken recipe that was pretty much chicken dipped in mayonnaise, rolled in crushed corn flakes, and baked.  Very basic, but also very good. Actually, I think the original recipe may have been for Miracle Whip, but as my mother loathed the stuff, we were never subjected to it.  We ate what mama liked.  Fortunately, mama had good taste.

I had a bit of a hankerin’ for oven-fried chicken tonight, but I was looking for something a bit more zesty than plain ol’ mayo.  I opened up the cupboard and there was a can of chipotle chilis in adobo! There was my zest!

I made a chipotle mayonnaise by putting 2 chipotles and about 3/4 cup of mayonnaise in the small bowl of the food processor and processed until smooth.

In the big bowl, I smashed about 2 cups of corn chips.

I dipped the boneless, skinless chicken breasts into the mayo, rolled them in the corn chips, and baked at 425° for 20 minutes.

For the rice, I just added about a half-cup of salsa to the cooking water.  Plenty of flavor with no muss or fuss.

The chicken had a bit of a fun childhood-memory taste to it.  I don’t think my mother ever knew what a chipotle pepper was – or, at least, never cooked with them while I was living at home – but it still had a comforting crunch from days gone by.

I can see some fun variations on this.

¡Olé!