Oh my good lord. Okay. The next time I find boneless skinless chicken thighs on sale, I'm doing this again - although I suspect it would work equally well with other chicken bits. Loosely adapted from America's Test Kitchen. I say "loosely" because this is the didn't-measure, don't-have-most-of-the-equipment-you-suggested, wildly-substituting-and-omitting-ingredients grad student kitchen version. Here goes.
Get a big bowl. Mix together some plain yogurt (about 2 cups) with a few heaping spoons of mustard (spicy, with the big mustard seeds unbroken) and sriracha (or, I suppose, the hot sauce of your choice). Throw in some pepper and salt and whatever other random spices you like -- I used some "southwestern spice blend" my mom had given me, but honestly I think the mustard and sriracha are already plenty. I also lopped in a heaping spoon of finely minced garlic, because I had it around.
It will smell fantastic. Get the chicken bits good and covered with the stuff, throw them in a bowl, wrap in plastic, set in the fridge overnight. Or if you're me, get caught up by work and leave 'em there for 2 whole days.
At this point you can take the chicken out and just throw it in a hot oiled skillet and you'll get this amazing, tender, juicy pan-fried chicken. (I did that for two pieces of chicken because I'd run out of oven-safe containers and I was very, very hungry.) But if you want to go ridiculous, crank the oven to 400F and keep going.
Get some crumby-things. I used extra breadcrumbs from the freezer. The original recipe suggests crushed cornflakes. Maybe you could do cornmeal - not sure. Whatever it is, season it well -- I put in some cayenne for heat, but you could probably just do salt and a lot of pepper, and then paprika or whatever you would like -- and toss it with a spoon of oil (I used canola) just so it's a bit moist. Then bread the chicken - the yogurt will make the breading stick beautifully - and put them in pans and put the pans in the oven.
35-40 minutes later, holy shit. Baked chicken, but exploding with flavor and crispy and brown on the outside as if it had been fried, except it's healthy (sort of -- healthier than fried chicken anyway) and with the cayenne giving it a little heat, the mustard seeds crunching satisfyingly, the spices exploding into the juices that flood your mouth when you bite...
Yes, the chicken would be crispier if I'd baked it on a rack instead of in a pan (where the juices made the breading slightly soggy on the bottom). I don't have a rack. I don't care. It's great. I eat mostly vegetarian meals these days (although I'm not a vegetarian) but tonight's dinner consisted of three giant pieces of chicken and some braised brussels sprouts, and I couldn't be more satisfied.
For the sprouts: heat a thin film of oil in a frying pan, cut the sprouts in half and brown them cut-side down over medium-high heat, then pour broth (chicken, vegetable, whatever) into the pan and cover it and let it braise until a fork goes straight through 'em, then uncover and keep cooking until the liquid evaporates. Done. If you use milk instead of broth and throw some salt/pepper/random-spices in, it's even better, but I had no milk tonight.
I would totally cook this for a crowd.