About six hours before baking the chicken, liberally salt and pepper the pieces of chicken. Place the chicken on a sheet pan in a single layer and place the pan in the refrigerator.

After about six hours, remove the chicken from the refrigerator. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a sided sheet pan with some heavy-duty aluminum foil. Spray the foil with some cooking spray and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, curry powder, 3/4 teaspoon table salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, and cayenne (if using). Thoroughly dredge each piece of chicken in the flour mixture and place the chicken on the sprayed sheet pan, skin-side up. Spritz just enough oil on the top of each piece of chicken to slightly moisten the flour. Alternatively, you could lightly brush or dab on some oil on the top of each piece of chicken.

Once the oven has preheated, bake the chicken for about 50 minutes for thighs (less for breasts and even less for wings).

Special notes:

I prefer to use the same cut of chicken when making this recipe. For example, I prepared this recipe using all chicken thighs (as pictured here) and they cooked in 50 minutes (to an internal temperature of 170F). If you use all chicken breasts, they will take about 40 minutes (to an internal temperature of 160F). Chicken wings taste GREAT but only need about 30 minutes. I do not like using mixed pieces of chicken (breasts, thighs, wings, etc.) because they cook at different rates and that makes it harder to not overcook or undercook some of the pieces.

If you are thinking of frying the chicken in a skillet, don’t! The curry powder will burn in the oil and you’ll have blackened chicken before it is cooked through. This recipe was not designed for shallow or deep frying.

Prep time does not include time for marinating the chicken.