dark meat chicken > light meat chicken
I'm sure there are plenty of ways to prepare chicken breasts in such a way that I would taste, savor and possibly enjoy them, but frankly, why bother when chicken thighs and drumsticks are infinitely tastier and more satisfying - not to mention more economical?
As a thrifty shopper/starving artist, I love paying less for the meat that tastes better than its expensive tasteless counterpart. Can't beat it! Problem is, there are so many recipes out there for chicken breasts, and cookbooks often neglect the other parts of the chicken. Not Jamie Oliver or Mark Bittman, though! Both have excellent recipes for chicken legs, but today I'm going to give you my adaptation of Mark Bittman's recipe. It's dead easy and tastier than any chicken I've ever had in a restaurant. The chicken falls off the bone, the skin is perfectly crisp and the flavor is worth swooning over and telling all your friends about.
Diana's Roasted Chicken Legs (via Mark Bittman)
Yield: dinner for one really hungry person, or dinner for two people with normal hunger levels. Multiply recipe accordingly for more dinner guests...
2 Chicken Legs (SKIN ON)
1 clove garlic, sliced
handful of roughly chopped parsley leaves (cilantro would be a worthy substitute)
kosher salt
pepper
hunk of butter
Preheat the oven to 450.
Put the garlic in the bottom of a mortar and pestle, sprinkle with a nice pinch of salt and bash into a pulp. Throw in the parsley leaves and bash up some more until broken down and incorporated.
Take your chicken legs and - this is the gross nasty part - spread the garlic/parsley/salt mixture UNDER the skin. I'm sorry to ask you to do this, but we need the skin to protect the garlic and parsley from burning at such a high temp in the oven. You wouldn't want that to happen, would you?
Then sprinkle the chicken on both sides with salt and crack some black pepper on it.
Put the butter on the roasting pan (do not use a broiler pan) and put it in the oven for a hot minute. Once melted, take out the pan and place the chicken skin side UP on it. Throw it in the oven for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, take your tongs and turn the chicken over. Set the timer for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, turn it over again to cook skin side up for 5 minutes.
Take it out of the oven, check for doneness by inserting a sharp knife towards the bone. If the juices are clear, you have done well. If not, cook the chicken a little longer.
It's a great recipe if you belong to a farm share, have a garden or hit up the local farmer's market, as you can pair the chicken with all sorts of vegetable side dishes. I paired the chicken with broccoli collard greens and a greek salad. Be sure to get some good, organic, local, free-range chicken for this dish - it's so worth it.
It was so good I licked the plate.
2 comments:
Wow, this sounds delish - and Jamie Oliver's roasted chicken with lemon halves tucked inside and an obscene amount of butter brushed on the outside is my favorite roasted chicken in the world. It makes a wicked pan sauce.
Couldn't agree more about dark meat, though I must admit it took me a while to see through the boneless skinless breast hype. My weirdly mature college-age cousin once said about putting skim milk in coffee, "Why would people do that to themselves?" I'd say the same sentiment applies here!
Rosemary and garlic would be great here, too!
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