Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Baked Chicken, 4 ways- Part 1

Hello World!  I've been lacking on my blogging... wow! So much has happened since September 17th.. okay, not really...

Happy belated birthday to my friend Christel.  I promised I would do a special blog for her birthday (she did grilled pizzas- they were amazing!!) but the time has waaayyy past!

Anyhow, nothing too new in my life, yes, still very much unemployed!!  The mountains are getting glorious amounts of snow (it's a sight to be seen!) and I am seriously contemplating heading to A Basin for some early season snowboarding tomorrow.   My life is hard.  I know.

This next series of blogs are going to be about chicken quarters.  The chicken quarter, for me personally, is the best part of the chicken, with dark meat, some white and tons of flavor... not to mention it is also super duper inexpensive (Hi Chicken Breasts! What? you cost $7.99/lb?  No thanks, I'll take some of them Chicken Legs instead for $1.99).  Since it is fall and winter squashes are becoming a plenty, I am taking this opportunity to see what I can do with chicken and winter squashes. 


So in this edition of my blog, you can pick and choose what you want to make... but let us follow the life of 6 lbs of chicken legs that I bought.  This blog also won't have a picture (we ate part 1 of the chicken legs last night) but everything else will.    First up is just baked chicken legs.  In the oven with the legs are oven baked potato wedges and acorn and butternut squash.  Sure, it sounds like a lot to have in your oven, but you might as well be green if you are turning it on by cooking as much as possible right?  The legs and potatoes will obviously be eaten tonight and you can obviously have a side of squash too, but the squash will be mainly used for the next evening's dish.


Evening 1, Baked Chicken Quarters, Potato Wedges, and a side of Squash

ingredients

6 lbs of chicken legs, rinsed and pat dry
5 yukon gold potatoes, cut into wedges
Sea salt
pepper
olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, cut into wedges
garlic, coarsely chopped
1/8 tsp red chili flakes

1 butternut squash
2 acorn squash

1 tblspn of flour
1/4 c chicken broth


instructions

1. preheat oven to 375F, coat bottom of baking pan with olive oil
2. season chicken with salt&pepper
3. rub chicken with olive oil
4. place chicken onto baking pan, wedge about 1/2 of the onion in between chicken

5. in a bowl, toss the potatoes in salt&pepper, garlic, and chili flakes.
6. chop up remaining onion and toss that with the potatoes too
7. place in a baking pan

8. cut acorn and butternut squashes in half, remove strings and seeds (save the seeds, they are excellent toasted)
9. in another baking pan, place squash halves cut face up, sprinkle with sea salt, add water so that it is about .5 inches deep and cover with foil

10.  place all three pans (chicken, potatoes and squash) into the oven.  Bake for 45 - 60 min until juices of the chicken run clear and the squash can have a knife move through it easily, potatoes can be periodically tossed (every 15 min) 
11. At this point, if the chicken hasn't thoroughly browned, turn the broiler on to brown the chicken and the potatoes.  Remove squash and let cool. 
12. Remove chicken from pan and let rest. Toss potatoes to let it continue to brown
13. Transfer the drippings from the pan to a sauce pan.  Add small amounts of flour at a time, while whisking continually.  Add a bit of chicken broth, continuing to whisk.  Add a bit more flour until your gravy has reached desired consistency.

14. Consume dinner of baked chicken, potatoes, and if you want, some of the squash (I scooped a bit out and added some butter)

15. Once the squash has cooled, scoop out its innards and toss the shell.  Let everything throughly cool before you store in the fridge.

Tomorrow, we will be making chicken stock, butternut and acorn squash soup!

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