1.31.2013

Some Good Ol' Chicken

I got a beautiful Dutch oven for Christmas from my mom. I have been dreaming about lovely things to make in it. Today, I made its inaugural meal, and it didn't disappoint. I was inspired by "lemon rosemary chicken" by http://franziskasfood.wordpress.com, but I made it my own. It's easy and very tasty, but you have to have an hour to spare, because that's how long it took to cook in my oven. 

Here's what I used:
10 very small red potatoes (you could easily cut large ones in half)
1 lemon, halved
4 small shallots, peeled
dried rosemary, to taste. I probably used about 2 Tbsp.
tsp. chili powder
1/2 Tbsp honey
1 cup white wine
4 fresh chicken thighs, bone-in, with skin
kosher salt
fresh ground pepper
4 Tbsp. olive oil
juice of one lemon

Preheat your oven to 400 and after washing the dirt off the potatoes, put them in a pot and cover them with water. Set the burner to high heat and once the water is boiling, let them simmer for about 9 minutes. You don't want them really soft- you're just cooking them enough so they won't be hard after roasting.

If you have time to do this earlier, then marinate the chicken longer. I, however, had like, 10 minutes and it was fine. Combine olive oil, honey, chili powder, some salt and cracked pepper, and lemon juice and marinate the chicken thighs.

When you've drained the potatoes, place them on the bottom of the roasting tin (or in this case, the Dutch oven. I'll bet a roasting tin would make everything nice and crispy, but the oven worked well too!). Stick the lemon halves and shallots in with them, too. Add 1/2 of the rosemary. Pour the wine over the potatoes, and add some salt and cracked pepper.

Arrange the chicken thighs, skin-side up, on top of the potatoes. Cover with any residual marinade. Add the last of the rosemary. Cook for one hour in a Dutch oven (maybe 45 minutes in a roasting pan). Make sure the juice runs clear when you pierce the chicken.

Remove the skin from the chicken (healthier!) and serve with the potatoes, cut open. Spoon a little of the juice from the bottom of the pan onto the chicken and potatoes.

I found this recipe to be easy and very good. It was pretty healthy, too, as long as I didn't gobble up too much of the wine/oil juice. The original recipe called for thickening the juice with milk and cornstarch, but I felt I'd rather spend the calories elsewhere. There was an almost buttery taste, yet no butter was used. The wine flavor cooks out, of course, and the lemon/rosemary/shallots were not overpowering. Plus, it made my house smell amazing. Are there any other rosemary fans out there?!

This served Mike and me, with some potatoes left over that I couldn't eat. You could easily have added more potatoes and more thighs to fit in the Dutch oven and serve more people.  

Try this out soon! You won't be disappointed! Next time I might use my roasting pan!



xoxo, A

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