Don't Be Chicken!

I love recipes that are fast and easy to prepare.  They can't just be fast & easy - they have to taste good, too.  Bonus points if they're REALLY tasty.  I think this fills the bill.

One of my favorite ways to fix chicken is to brine leg & thigh pieces in salt water for about 30 minutes, drain, and dredge in seasoned flour.  Place them in a foil-lined oiled pan, spray with vegetable spray and bake about an hour at 425.  Sort of a take on oven fried.  I sometimes mix a little cornmeal or bread crumbs in with the flour.  Easy.  For vegetables I sometimes cut up onions, carrots, celery & potatoes and strew them among the chicken pieces.

This version is even easier.  Don't bother with the flour.  Instead just drizzle the brined chicken & cut up vegetables with oil, dust with some bottled spice blend and toss well.  Spread in the pan and roast, basting about every 20 minutes with the pan juices to ensure a crispy skin.

Boy is this good.  When the vegetables are tender and nicely brown (toss them whenever you baste) the chicken is probably done and dinner is on the table in no time.

Vary the vegetables.  Include sweet potatoes or parsnips, or just use what you have in the house.  Add a green salad or a side of green vegetables and you have a very healthy meal.

Don't forget to save the pan drippings and bones to simmer for soup stock!

Quotable quotes; in the category Chickens Have To Live Somewhere, Even If They Don't Go To Church!

"Regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken house as to build a cathedral."  Frank Lloyd Wright