Chicken Cobb Club

One of my favorite salads is the Cobb salad. I love the crunchy lettuce, the creamy avacados and the tangy blue cheese. It's an awesome mix of flavor and is always a joy to eat. But what happens when I turn it into a sammie? Well it's still an awesome mix of flavor, all wrapped up in a nice crusty, crunchy package. The toasted french bread acts like the croutons and the goodies you normally find in the salad are piled high on top. A simple mix of a good tangy blue cheese and a little sour cream or yogurt becomes the dressing. It's so good, I wish I could make one right now for lunch!

One Year Ago: Maple Glazed Pork Chops
Two Years Ago: Fried Pickles

What You Need:

1 loaf of french bread, sliced lengthwise
1/3 c good blue cheese
1/3 c sour cream, mayo or greek yogurt
1lb chicken breast
1 avocado, sliced
1 large tomato sliced
4 hard boiled eggs, peeled and sliced
8 slices cooked bacon
salt and pepper

What To Do:

Preheat a grill or grill pan. Season your chicken breast with salt and pepper and grill for 3-5 minutes per side or until cooked all the way though. Remove from heat and set aside to rest. Quickly grill the cut side of the bread, just until lightly toasted.
In a small bowl combine the blue cheese and sour cream (mayo or greek yogurt) with the back of a spoon. It's it will be thick but keep working on it.
Once your sauce is made and the chicken has rested, thinly slice the chicken on a biased.
Smear the blue cheese sauce over the bottom side of the bread. Then layer the slices of chicken, tomato, eggs, avocado, and bacon. Top it with the top half of bread, cut into sammies and enjoy!

Chicken with Blue Cheese Cream Sauce

Rich and decadent, this dish is surprisingly easy to make.The basic cream sauce came from last week when I was helping out and Paradise Bakery. The sauce there was this rich cream sauce made with goat cheese and was served with butternut squash ravioli and toasted baguette. Wanting to recreate it at home but needing something more substantial for my husband, I set out to make this dish.

One Year Ago: Mexican Fiesta Rice
Two Years Ago: Caramel Apple Crisp

What You Need:

1/4 c minced onion or shallot
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 c half and half
1/2 c blue cheese
1 tbs olive oil
salt and pepper
4 chicken breast (about 1 lb)

What To Do:

In a sautee pan, heat 1/2 tbs olive oil. Once hot, sear the chicken on both sides until just cooked through. It should only take a couple minutes per side, depending on the thickness. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside. Turn the heat to medium low and add in the remaining 1/2 tbs olive oil. Sautee the onion or shallot until just soft and add in the garlic. Cook for another 30 seconds before adding in the half and half and the blue cheese. Keeping the heat on medium low, cook for a few minutes or until the cheese melts and the sauce thickens slightly. Return the chicken breast an any juices back the pan to rewarm. Serve with a bit of the sauce on top of each breast.

Buffalo Chicken Tacos

I love spicy foods and one of my favorite things is buffalo chicken. I love how the spice hits your tongue and is then cooled by the creaminess of the blue cheese dressing. My husband, loves tacos. So why not combine them? Turns out, spicy buffalo chicken makes some incredibly tasty tacos. I serve them in toasted corn tortillas with just a bit of blue cheese and some tomatoes. They are great by themselves for lunch or along side a tossed salad or some rice for supper. And don't forget a tall glass of ice cold beer. Beer and buffalo chicken go together like Mac and cheese. You shouldn't have one, without the other. 

One Year Ago: Peas and Pasta

Two Years Ago: Pasta with Summer Squash

What You Need:

3/4 lb of chicken (I used boneless skinless thighs but breast work well too)

1/3 c hot sauce

1/4 c honey

2 tbs Sriracha

1/2 c water

1/2 c blue cheese crumbles

16 grape tomatoes, cut into quarters

8 corn tortillas

What To Do:

Combine the hot sauce, honey, sriracha and water into a wide pot. Add in your chicken and bring everything to a boil. Once it's boiling, turn the heat down to a simmer and let cook for about 30 minutes, turning half way through if your sauce doesn't cover the chicken. Once the chicken is cooked through, remove from the sauce and set aside to cool for a few minutes. Meanwhile, turn the sauce back to high and let it reduce for about 5 minutes or until most of the water has evaporated and you have a thickened sauce. 

Cut your chicken into pieces or shred with two forks. Toast the corn tortillas by placing them over an open flame for a minute or two per side, or in a nonstick skillet, just until slightly blistered and warmed through. 

Top each tortilla with 1/8 of the chicken, 1 tbs of the crumbled blue cheese and two of the cherry tomatoes that have been sliced into quarters. Give a drizzle of the reduced sauce and top with some cilantro if you'd prefer.

Cobb Salad

Yes I realize it's the middle of winter and yes, I even realize that while you can get okay produce in most parts of the country this time of year, that salad are generally a "summer" food. However, there comes a point in winter time (our are usually long, often having frost well into May), that a girl needs a reminder of summer time and the plentiful bounty it brings with it. Cobb salads are composed, meaning they are not all tossed together, but carefully arranged. I like the look of straight lines but you could always make piles. Blue cheese dressing is traditional but the dressing is really up to you. I keep the choices simple but you would normally find diced hard boiled eggs and sometimes even avocado grace this terrific reminder of summer.

One Year Ago: Apple Cider Cake
Two Years Ago: Mushroom Pies with Pear Salad

What You Need:

1-2 chicken breast, roasted, cooled and diced
6 cup mixed greens
2 large tomatoes, diced
1 cucumber, sliced (peel if desired or use 1/2 an English cuke)
1 c diced blue cheese
4 pieces of bacon, cooked crisp and then chopped
croutons

What To Do:

Place the greens on the bottom of a large serving platter or shallow bowl. Start with the diced chicken in the middle. Place it in a straight line down the center of the salad. Repeat with the rest of your ingreidents, in any order you like. Serve with dressing, makes enough for 4 supper sized salads.

Green Chili

Green. Not like Green eggs and ham green, but salsa verde green. It makes a difference right? This is a quick and easy chili where most of the flavor comes from salsa verde. Chicken is cut up and simmered in a delicious green sauce. Sauteed onions and garlic are added into it, along with some  creamy white beans. This is not your traditional tomato based chili but it still has that warming, comforting feel.

One Year Ago: Skillet Potatoes
Two Years Ago: Carne Asada

What You Need:

2 cups salsa verde (try this version, or this version)
1 lb chicken, cut into bite sized cubes
1 large onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2 (15oz) can white beans (canellini's are my favorite)
salt and pepper

What To Do:

Simmer the chicken and salsa verde together until the chicken is no longer pink. Meanwhile, saute the onions and garlic and until soften. Stir the onion and garlic along with the beans into the chicken mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a bubble and cook together for a few minutes until everything is hot. Serve over rice. This is even better the next day or even served with a fried egg.

Lemony Chicken and Egg Soup

Can you believe it? A soup recipe? From me? Actually, I've started liking soups more and more. I've made quite a few so far this winter, if you can call it winter. It's been pretty mild just about every where, well almost everywhere. There is a little town in Alaska that received a gift of 18 feet of snow. In one day. Can you imagine??? I certainly can't. So in honor of those poor frozen people in the true north, here is a yummy chicken soup recipe. By cooking the rice right along with the chicken, and adding the eggs in later on, you create an almost creamy soup, without the added fat of cream.

One Year Ago: Split Pea Soup
Two Years Ago: Roasted Garlic

What You Need:

1lb of boneless, skinless chicken (can use all breast or breast/thigh)
1/2 c rice (real rice, not minute rice)
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp dried thyme
bay leaf
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 c chicken stock
2 large eggs
1/2 c shredded Parmesan cheese
1 bunch of kale, chopped (remove stems)
salt and pepper

What To Do:

In bottom of your slow cooker, place the rice, chicken, lemon zest, thyme, bay leaf, garlic and chicken stock. Cook on low for 6 hours. Remove the chicken and shred. Add it back into the soup. Whisk together the eggs and parmesan cheese with lots of salt and pepper. Slowly stir the eggs into the hot soup. Stir in the chopped kale and let cook for 30 more minutes or until it's heated through and the kale has wilted.

Crockpot Chicken Tacos

You all know that Mexican is my favorite cuisine. I have never had a Mexican dish I didn’t like. This is a simple dish, made in the slow cooker. It’s easy to freeze too which is nice because then you have supper almost ready on nights you don’t feel like cooking. I sometimes double up this recipe too so that I have plenty left over to freeze. You can this mix for taco’s and then use what’s left for enchiladas too. Double duty meals are the best! Want a triple duty meal? Use the shredded chicken meat to make nachos too!

One Year Ago: Divine Chocolate Pound Cake
Two Years Ago: Chili Con Carne

 What You Need:

1 whole chicken, cut into 6 pieces (2 breasts, 2 thighs and 2 drumsticks) Can use the wings too but they don’t give much meat so I always save them for stock.
1 (28 oz can) crushed tomatoes
1 can of water or chicken stock
¼ c taco seasoning
1 tbs chili powder
1 tbs garlic powder
1 tbs cumin
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tbs oregano
1 tbs cocoa powder
1 jalapeño split down the middle
1 lrg onion, diced
1 chipotles in adobo, minced


What To Do:

Leave the skin on the thighs and drummies, remove it from the breast. Place everything into the crockpot and cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 5-6 hours. Remove the chicken from the sauce. Toss the skin from the leg portions and shred the chicken. Strain the liquid from the slow cooker. Return the chicken back into the slow cooker with enough liquid to just keep the chicken moist. Serve the shredded chicken in warmed corn tortilla with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, cheese etc. Freezing Instructions: Since you're using a whole chicken, you'll get two to three meals out this. I take any chicken we didn't eat the first night and package it into freezer zip top bags or containers with a little bit of extra sauce. When you want taco again, remove from the freezer to thaw and just reheat. With the rest of the sauce, you can let it cool and freeze it to use later for making this recipe again, or you can bowl it down till it thickens a bit and use it for an enchilada sauce.

Asian Chicken Salad

Salads are one of favorite things to eat. No, I’m not a rabbit, but I love crunchy veggies on top of lettuce. Oh and not just any lettuce, but usually mixed greens. I’m not an iceberg kind of girl. Besides not having a taste, it doesn’t have any nutrition either. This salad is topped with shredded carrots, grilled chicken and almond with a yummy ginger soy dressing. Try it soon, before the fall season is here to stay and fresh veggies are hard to come by.

What You Need

8 cups mixed greens
2 chicken breasts, cooked (approx. 1 lb)
1 pint of cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
1 medium cucumber, sliced into half moons
1 c shredded carrots
½ c sliced almonds
Dressing:
¼ c olive oil
2 tbs rice wine vinegar
1 tbs soy
1 tbs honey
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp freshly grated ginger

What To Do:

Whisk all the ingredients for the dressing together and set aside. Arrange two cups of the mixed greens onto 4 plates. Divide the rest of the ingredients among the plates and drizzle with the dressing.  This would also be good with mandarin oranges and those crunchy Chinese noodles.

Red Curry Grilled Chicken

I’ve been trying to get into Thai style cooking more and more but honestly what I know of it, is that it’s spicy. That doesn’t sit well with my husband who ends up with reflux attacks. I’ve had a small jar of red curry paste in my pantry for awhile but I’ve been scared to use it as it’s supposed to be the hottest. Loving spicy food myself, I decided to just go for it one night. I would give it a taste and see what I could to make it enjoyable for my husband as well. I tasted the curry paste by itself and it really wasn’t all that hot to me. It was spicy, meaning there was a lot of flavorful spices to it, but it wasn’t hot spicy. I mixed in some honey and rice wine vinegar to help balance the flavors and then slathered over some chicken legs. The results were an explosion in my mouth. I absolutely loved it. So did my husband. I served it up with some coconut rice and a simple cucumber salad. I’ll post the recipe for my cucumbers on GOC’s facebook page today so you’ll have that. This isn’t just for chicken legs. You can use it on breasts or wings too.

What You Need:

2 tbs red curry paste
2 tbs honey
1 tbs rice wine vinegar
4 chicken legs
salt and pepper


What To Do:

Combine the curry paste, honey and vinegar until mixed well. Season both sides of the chicken legs with salt and pepper and cover completely with all of the paste. Let sit for 30 minutes before preheating your grill. Once the grill is hot, place the chicken legs on your grill, skin side down for about 5 minutes or until the skin is crisp. Flip the legs over and turn the heat to low. Continue cooking the chicken until it’s not longer pink in the middle.

Video: Breaking Down a Whole Chicken

 

Here it is! The second ever video on GOC. I am having a blast thinking of things I can show you guys on a video. It’s pretty fun to make them. This time I did it by myself and used a trusty tripod to hold the video camera but I think it still came out pretty well. So, breaking down a chicken is pretty easy. It doesn’t take a whole lot of time and is pretty economical to do. For less then $1 a pound you can easy eat a few meals out of a single chicken. Nothing goes to waste either because the parts you typically don’t eat, like the neck and spine, can still be saved for making your own chicken stock. Enjoy the video and please let me know if you like them.

Oh and just a quick warning, I am a mom of two and you WILL hear my two kids in the background. They are always interested in watching me cook. In fact my daughter has helped me make things on numerous occasions and she’s only 2 and half. At one point, my son feels it was necessary to let out a few high pitched screams, so I wouldn’t turn the volume up very loud!

Breaking down a whole chicken

Mediterranean Pasta

I’ve really been liking the Mediterranean flavors lately, not to mention that the fact that I found out I like artichokes. This is a pretty quick and easy dish that was inspired by something my husband once had at a restaurant. It was penne pasta that was tossed with olives and various other things with a basil cream sauce. I opted for a tomato base and large wide noodles, oh and I added in some chicken for protein too.  It’s great for summer time as it has zucchini and yellow summer squash in it which you can always find in abundance. The flavors mesh really well, nothing is to over powering which makes it a really successful dish.
What You Need:
1 tbs olive oil
1lb chicken breast cut into bite sized pieces
1 medium zucchini, cut into bite size pieces
1 medium yellow summer squash, cut into bite size pieces
1 can artichoke quarters
1 1/2 c crush tomatoes
1/2 c pitted Kalamata olives
1/2 tbs dried oregano
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper
1/2 lb pasta, cooked till al dente and drained (use either a wide flat noodle or a hallow noodle like penne)
What To Do:
Place a large skillet over medium heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and cook in the skillet with the olive oil until no more pink is showing. Add in the zucchini, yellow squash, artichoke quarters and garlic and continue to cook until the chicken is cooked through and the squash is tender but not not mush. Add in the crushed tomatoes, oregano and more salt and pepper if needed. Cook for a few minutes or until the sauce has started to bubble. Stir in the olives and toss it all together with the pasta before serving.

Simple Grilled Chicken

Chicken is a staple in my house. We eat it quite often. Since it summer time, I fire up my grill, more then I fire up my oven. This means I can make a simple but flavorful grilled chicken for supper. Just two ingredients (minus the salt and pepper), and you’ve got an easy protien for your meal, any night of the week. The chicken is marinated to infuse it with great flavor and it’s so easy that you can get in the marinade in less then 5 minutes and be out the door for work/school/play date in no time.

What You Need:

boneless skinless chicken breast
zesty Italian salad dressing
salt and pepper


What To Do:


Season the chicken with salt and pepper and place in a shallow dish or zip top bag. Cover with the dressing and let sit all day. Preheat your grill and once it’s hot, cook your chicken over high heat for about 5 minutes on the first side. The high heat will sear the outside of your chicken, locking in the juices and flavor. Flip the chicken, turn your heat down to low and continue cooking until done. A meat thermometer should reach 160-165 degrees in the thickest part.

Dark and Lovely Thighs

Like the name? I do. It sounds better then brown sugar and soy chicken thighs doesn’t it? No? Oh well! Sweet, salty and a bit of spicy, these marinated chicken thighs are absolutely scrumptious. It was very hard to eat just one that’s for sure. I took the marinated and boiled it down to make a glaze. Normally, you should get rid of a marinade for fear of yucky bacteria, but by boiling it for 10 minutes, you kill off anything that might be lurking in there. It becomes thick and almost syrupy, and when you coat the thighs with it, the heat from the grill caramelizes the sugars making these the best dark meat you’ll ever have.


What You Need:

1 1/2 to 2lbs bone less skin less chicken thighs (about 6-8 thighs)
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c soy sauce (I like reduced sodium because then my glaze doesn’t become overly salty)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 piece of ginger, mined (or about 1 tsp of the powdered stuff)
1 tsp Sriracha


What To Do:

In a bowl, whisk together all the ingredients except for the chicken thighs. Pour the marinade into a shallow dish or into a zip top bag. Add in the chicken thighs and make sure they are coated well with the marinade. Let it sit for at least 1 hour, but you can always do it before work and have it read for when you get home.
About 30 minutes before you want to eat, preheat your grill and remove the chicken thighs to a plate. Pour the marinade into a sauce pan and place it over high heat. Bring it to a rapid boil for at least 10 minutes. You want to to reduce down by about 1/2. Be careful and make sure you don’t take your eyes off the marinade. The sugar in it will cause the marinade to bubble over if your not careful.
Place the thighs on the grill over high heat for 3-5 minutes. You want them to have nice dark grill marks. Flip the thighs and coat liberally with the cooked marinade. Turn the heat the heat to low and finish cooking another 3-5 minutes or until done. Flip them once again and coat with the remaining cooked marinade. Turn the heat off and shut the grill. Let sit for about a minute so that the glaze has a chance to stick to the thighs. Remove the grill and let rest for at least 5 minutes, covered in foil to keep warm. Then devour the deliciousness!

Pico Chicken

A great, simple, quick most importantly, flavorful, chicken dish. Simply put, it’s grilled chicken topped with pico de gallo. Not much more I can say except for “when do we eat?”

What You Need:


2 chicken breast
1 c Pico De Gallo
salt, pepper and garlic powder

What To Do:  



Preheat your grill on high. Season the chicken a bit of salt, pepper and garlic powder. When the grill is hot, cook your chicken a few minutes on each side or until cooked all the way through. Remove from the grill top each breast with 1/2 c of Pico De Gallo and enjoy.

Greek Chicken Sliders

I’ve never made a burger before using ground chicken but I have to say that these were really yummy. I had some feta cheese I needed to use but I didn’t want to make a pasta salad and I didn’t have all the ingredients to make my favorite Mediterranean Salad so I started thinking of what I could do. I had taken some chicken out of the freezer for a completely different dish but when the idea came to me, to grind up the chicken and make burgers I knew I had a winner. These are very simple and they have some great flavor. I topped mine with tzatziki sauce for even more yumminess.


What You Need:

1 1/2 lb ground chicken
3/4 c crumbled feta cheese
1/2 c bread crumbs
1 egg
1 tsp dried oregano
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper
veg oil


What To Do:

In a bowl, combine all the ingredients thoroughly, without over mixing it. Preheat a grill or grill pan over high heat. Shape into 6 sliders (or 8 smaller ones). Drizzle a little oil onto each side of the slider to help prevent sticking. Grill for a few minutes on each side or until cooked through completely. Serve on slider buns or mini hamburger rolls with tzatziki sauce.

Note: a little fresh mint, chopped would be good in these burgers too!

Chipotle Chicken

The end of this week is Cinco De Mayo, the day in which to celebrate the Mexican victory over the French in 1862. I celebrate by eating all sorts of yummy Mexican inspired dishes all week long. This week I have three recipes to share with you, all from the same meal. The first is this dish right here. A spicy marinated and then grilled chicken breast. The chipotle peppers in the dish not only give the chicken a kick but also lend a smoky flavor to them as well. Just one chipotle can pack a punch so if you don't want it super spicy, remove the seeds. You'll still get a kick, but it could mean the difference of enjoying the dish instead of not feeling your tongue!
The three dishes this week all share some common ingredients which is another reason why I'm sharing them. Make sure to check back on Wednesday and again on Friday to see the two side dishes.

What You Need:

1 chipotle in adobo
1 tsp of the adobo sauce
1 tbs tomato paste
1 tbs oil
juice of 1 lime
1 tbs honey or agave
1 minced garlic clove
1 tsp cumin
salt
4 chicken breasts

What To Do:

Remove the seeds from the chipotle if you choose, then minced it up fine. Combine it in a bowl with the rest of the ingredients, minus the chicken breast. Pour half the sauce into a re-sealable zip top bag along with the chicken. Seal the bag and use your hands to work the sauce around the chicken so that it's well coated. Let sit for at least an hour, but no more then 4 hours.
Preheat your girll, once hot, remove the chicken from the marinade and grill over high heat for 3-5 minutes on the first side. Flip them over and baste them with some of the remaining sauce. Lower the heat and finish cooking the chicken breast another 3-5 minutes depending on the thickness. Use a meat thermometer if you're not sure. Flip and baste them one more time before taking them off the heat. Let rest for a few minutes before serving.

Chicken Pot Pie

This week I seem to be emptying my back log of the things I cooked over the winter. Comfort foods always top that list. What nice about these last few recipes I've posted is that they are perfect for spring time too. Where I live, it really doesn't get very warm until the end of May. In fact, we're still getting snow on the ground this time of year. It's winter's way of reminding me that I still can't make any concrete plans of getting down off the mountain. It was 55 one day last week and the next we were sprinkled with a couple inches of snow. This time of year is still perfect for warm, filling foods like chicken pot pie. A nice creamy gravy surrounds chicken breast and lots of veggies. I like to top mine off with a biscuit dough, but pie crust works just as well.

What You Need:

1lb chicken breast, cut into cubes
1 large russet potato, cut into small cubes
1 c frozen corn
1 c frozen peas
1/2 lb frozen pearl onions (1/2 a bag)
1 or 2 carrots, diced
1 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbs butter
1/4 c flour
3-4 cup chicken stock
1 tsp dried sage
1/2 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper
Pie Crust or your fav Biscuit recipe

What To Do:

In a sauce pan over medium heat, melt the butter. Once melted whisk in the flour and let it cook for a minute or two to get rid of the raw flour taste. Slowly whisk in the chicken stock to prevent lumps. Turn the heat to high and bring it up to a boil, stirring often. Just as soon as you see the first bubbles form, turn off your heat. If the sauce is to thick for your liking, add in a bit more stock. Stir the chicken breast into the gravy along with the thyme, sage, and some salt and pepper. In a large bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients. Pour the chicken and gravy over the top and stir everything together to combine. Portion the pot pie into ramekins or into a 13x9 pan, covering with either pie crust or biscuit dough. Make sure to cut slits in the top of the pie crust. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 45 minutes to an hour.
Note: I sprinkled some spices on top of my biscuit dough before baking.

Oven Baked Chicken Fingers

Nothing satisfies a tyke more then chicken nuggets, at least in my house that is. I don't buy chicken nuggets, or chicken fingers from the store. To many preservatives and who knows just what parts they make their nuggets from. I like to marinate mine for a bit in some low fat yogurt and dijon mustard, not just for the flavor but it because it helps to tenderize the chicken. Crusted with a mixture of wheat germ, saltine crackers and some corn flakes, they are super yummy and pretty good for you too!

What You Need:

2 chicken breast, about 1 pound
1/2 c plain low fat yogurt
1/4 c dijon mustard
1/2 c wheat germ
1/2 sleeve, saltine crackers
2 cup corn flakes
1/2 tsp cayenne
1 tsp garlic powder
pepper

What To Do:

Slice the chicken breast thinly, into "fingers". You should get at least 12, if not a couple more. Mix together the yogurt and the dijon and place the chicken into it. Stir until the chicken is well coated. Let sit for about an hour.
Preheat the oven to 425 degree. In a food processor, pulse the crackers until they are crumbly, then add in the wheat germ, cornflakes and spices. Pulse several times until the crackers become crumbs and everything is well mixed together. Turn out in to a bowl. Remove the chicken from the yogurt mixture and shake off the excess. Coat it with the crumb mixture, pressing it onto the chicken so that it coats it evenly. Place each piece on a cooing rack that is set into a baking sheet. Make sure you spray the rack with a bit of cooking spray before laying the chicken onto it. Place into the preheated oven and bake for about 15 to 20 minutes.

For a great honey mustard dipping sauce, combine 1/4 cup of dijon mustard with 3 tbs honey and 1 tbs of mayo, serve with the chicken fingers.

Tuscan Brick Chicken

I got this idea from watching an episode of the Barefoot Contessa on Food Network. She marinated her chicken in rosemary and lemon juice and then grilled it. I have been in love with lemons for the past six months or so, much to my husbands dismay. He's not a fan of citrusy flavors, however he fell in love with this chicken. There is just a hint of lemon flavor shinning through along with rosemary and garlic. Cooking the chicken "under a brick" or in my case, under a heavy cast iron pan with a teapot full on water on top, crisps the skin while keeping the chicken nice and moist. You can do this on the grill too if you'd like.

What You Need:

juice and zest of 2 lemon
2 or 3 springs of fresh rosemary, roughly chopped
4 cloves of garlic
2 tbs olive oil
salt and pepper
1 roasting chicken, flattened

What To Do:

Flattening a chicken is pretty easy. All you need to do, is take a very sharp chef nice, or a really good pair of kitchen shears and cut down both sides of the spine, starting at the birds neck. You will encounter the ribs but they're thin enough that it doesn't take much effort to cut right through them. Once you have the spine removed, you can save it for making chicken stock. Then just open up your chicken and gently press open. Make a cut into the breast bone at the top of the bird to help flatten it even more. Be careful when pressing it open as you can cut your hands on the ribs. Then just remove the breast bone but pulling it out. It comes out fairly easy. If you want to see this done, click this link. It will bring to the Barefoot Contessa show that I got the idea from. At about 14 minutes into the video, she shows you how to flatten the chicken. What she doesn't show you is how to remove the ribs but this was fairly easy as well. I took a sharp pairing knife, lifted up the ribs and just ran the pairing knife along the underside to remove the connecting tissue. When you get to where the ribs connect with the wing, just give it a bend and you'll see where the joints come together. Just separate it at the joint and that's it.
To marinate the chicken I season the skin side with salt and pepper. Then I take my microplane and zest one of the lemons onto it, then I do the same thing with half my garlic. I then squeeze the juice from the zested lemon over the top, drizzle 1 tbs of olive oil on top and then use my hand to rub it all in before sprinkling it with the rosemary, flipping it over and do the same thing to the other side. I do this in a big baking dish so that there is plenty of room for the chicken. Just cover with plastic wrap and popped in the fridge. Let it sit for at least 4 hours, turning it over about half way through so that it soaks up the flavor evenly. You can also let it sit all day but I wouldn't let it sit for more then say 10-12 hours as the lemon juice will actually "cook" the chicken.
To cook, preheat a large cast iron skillet over high heat until it's super hot. Remove the chicken from the marinade and pat dry. Add a touch of oil to the skillet and place the chicken in, skin side down, quickly weighing it down with a couple of foil wrapped garden bricks, another cast iron skillet, or even the lid to a dutch oven like I did. You want something heavy to weigh it down so that the skin doesn't curl up and so the entire chicken is being cooked. Cook like this for about 10 minutes or until nicely golden. Flip over and sear for another 10 minutes before placing it in a preheated 400 degree oven to finish cooking. It should only take another 15-20 minutes depending on how big your bird is. Check doneness with a cooking thermometer. Internal temp should be about 165. Remove and set rest for 5-10 minutes for before cutting and serving. The bird cut nicely into 4 quarters when you've removed the bones right. Just cut it right down the middle, then lift up and cut off each leg. You're left with two leg sections and two breast/wing sections.

Asian Glazed Chicken Legs

There are so many days where I am thankful that I enjoy food. I am thankful that all my taste buds works and that when I eat these chicken legs I can taste the soy, ginger and garlic that coat them. I am thankful that they are moist and delicious and pair so well with a number of sides, especially some brown rice and a crisp cucumber salad. I served it with the Mediterranean Salad I made a few weeks back and it was just as good. It's quick and easy to put together, the hardest part is waiting the hour until their cooked!

What You Need

2 chicken legs
2 tbs soy
2 tbs agave or honey
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic
1/2 inch piece of ginger
pepper

What To Do:

Preheat your oven to 400 degree and line a baking sheet with foil to make clean up easier. Spray lightly with cooking spray and place you chicken legs on it.
In a small bowl, grate the garlic cloves and the ginger into it, using a micro-plane, then mix in the soy, agave and rice wine vinegar and some pepper. Coat the chicken legs with some of the glaze and place into the oven for about 1 hour. After 30 minutes, glaze the chicken again and then again 15 minutes after that. Use the rest of the glaze when you take it out of the oven to rest for a few minutes before eating.