Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Jill Can Cook: Wowza Baked Chicken

Joe and I have been eating a lot of chicken drumsticks and thighs for dinner these past few months. This is because they are a very cheap option at the grocery store.

Is anyone else noticing how ridiculous meat prices are lately?! Did the cost per pound for hamburger double in the last year or what?! And don't even get me started on  steak tips! It's awful.

So, chicken drumsticks and thighs are on the menu at least once a week, if not more. Several months ago, Joe found this flippin' delectable seasoning for chicken. It was some kind of Mediterranean spice rub thing and we used the crap out of it.

And then we finished the bottle and threw it away (bad idea!!).

And then we were never able to find that particular spice rub again.

We found another spice rub to use in it's place, but it's just not the same. So, I looked to Pinterest (as usual) to spice my chicken up (get it? It's a pun. I'm super hilarious. Love me).

Wowza Baked Chicken

Adapted from: Kitchen With Mommy

Ingredients:


  • chicken drumsticks/thighs
  • olive oil
  • paprika
  • garlic powder
  • salt (I used sea salt)
  • fresh ground pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Place drumsticks in a 9x13 baking dish, and rub the drumsticks with enough olive oil to lightly coat them on all sides.  Sprinkle the drumsticks with paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper until coated.
3. Bake drumsticks at 375 degrees for 45 mins

I love that whoever put this recipe together didn't specify amounts for the ingredients. I'm not the best chef (or even a chef at all, really) by any means, but sometimes, it will be fine if you just eyeball it! Amirite?!

Look at that chicken thigh goodness!

OK, so maybe it's just me, but I have no plans on eating that skin. It's probably not good for you, although my main reason is that it will never get crispy like turkey skin (which I DEFINTELY eat! My dad is like a ninja when it comes to stealing and offering me turkey skin on the down low before Thanksgiving dinner is served! I have a rock star dad!)... So yeah, I grabbed a spoon to help maneuver the skin away from the meat.

Even if you do eat the skin, you should put seasoning on the meat. It makes it that much more flavorful!

For all you skin lovers, season up the skin, too!!

Sometimes Joe has an "I'm not worried about cholesterol or heart disease" day, so I season the skin, too. As you can see, I thoroughly doused everything in seasoning. I ain't shy and I don't plan to make any kind of sauce or gravy to go along with this, so it needs to stand on it's own!

So far, this is going swimmingly. It's easy enough to grab spices that I always have anyway and throw them on some chicken and wait 45 minutes until it's ready. But, there's always some doubt, like, "Did I put enough paprika on there?" or "What the heck does paprika taste like anyway?!"


And then you pull that baking dish out of the oven and you're hit with the most savory scent and you know that you didn't royally screw up your cheap chicken thighs!


Look at how beautiful and brown that skin looks. It almost made me want to eat it (but I didn't).


Joe did. He said it was great and that I should eat it, too. But I held strong.


I'm not going to lie and say that this recipe is just as good as my lost Mediterranean bottle of spices, because, well, nothing could be as good as that. But it was good. It's nice to not have to depend on a bottle of prepackaged spices to make dinner.



Are my pictures coming out more delicious looking or am I just hungry right now? Anyway, these were pretty good. Quinn was all like, "Can I have more chicken!?" She's not usually so happy about eating the chicken/meat portion of the meal. I mean, she eats it, but she's not begging for more helpings, so I know she really liked this.

Let's not talk about Mitchell and his pickiness during this blog post. He'll ruin the positive vibe!

A+ from the rest of us! And unless I find that snappy Mediterranean spice again, expect to see more chicken drumstick and thigh recipes!

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