This is a great meal for a dinner party. The recipie can easily be doubled or tripled (depending on the size of your oven), and the chicken can be kept warm for 30 minutes or so without getting overcooked. Leftovers can be eaten cold with slaw or salad. Leftovers can also be reheated. Just heat the oven to 350 degrees, put the chicken and remaining drippings back in a pan or casserole dish, cover the chicken and drippings and heat for half an hour. Each chicken feeds 8 heart healthy people or 4 teenagers.
If diabetes is not a problem, then you can make a complete meal with leftover or precooked rice (just reheat it with some pan drippings) or the Chicken Mashed Potatoes recipie that follows. Chicken mashed potatoes can be reheated in the oven with the chicken for leftovers.
If diabetes is an issue or if you are watching your weight, this dish is also really good with steamed or microwaved peas or broccoli as a green side dish.
Ingredients (all amounts are for one chicken)
1 chicken cut into standard parts (2 Drumsticks, 2 Thighs, 2 Wings, 2 Breasts cut in half horizontally (across the breast) to make them thigh sized). Make sure the skin is on and the chicken is not boneless. This recipie does not work with boneless or skinless chicken.
Garlic powder in a shaker bottle You will need about 2 tsp per chicken
Italian Seasoning mix (alternatively you can use a mixture of 3 parts oregano, 3 parts basil 1 part crushed rosemary and one part thyme) You will need about 1/3 a cup of dried herbs (or 2/3 of a medium sized container of italian seasoning mix) per chicken. Yes that is a lot of herbs.
Salt (you can omit this if needed), but the recipie does taste better if you have about 1/2 tsp per chicken)
Black pepper (preferably in a grinder) about 1/2 tsp per chicken
Water
1 TBSP of Lemon Juice, ideally the result of squeezing half a lemon
Equipment
13 by 9 Stainless Steel Pans and Aluminum Foil
Tongs
Heavy Chefs Knife
Aluminum foil
Instructions
Take each of the breast pieces and cut in half crosswise into approximately equal sized chunks making sure each chunk still has part of the ribs. One piece should be a sort of triangle and the other a sort of rectangle. Make sure that there is skin to cover both pieces.
Arrange chicken skin side UP in the pan or casserole dish. Make sure all the pieces are touching and that you cannot see any pan between them. Use a smaller pan if needed.
Wash your hands and set the rack in your oven in the middle and set your oven on BROIL.
Spinkle the chicken with 1 tsp of garlic powder making sure you get a relatively even amount on every piece of chicken.
Using your hands to crush the dried herbs, sprinkle them on the chicken. The chicken should look pretty well covered by the herbs.
Shake salt and grind pepper onto chicken evenly you want about 1/4 tsp of salt and 1/4 tsp of pepper for this first side. If you are trying to control salt intake, salt only this first side.
Put pan into scary hot oven, and close the door. You will need to check the oven frequently the first time you make this recipie to ensure that the herbs don’t burn.
In about 10 to 15 minutes your chicken should be sizzling and browning on top. Take it out of the oven. Flip over each piece of chicken so that the skin side is now down. There should already be a fair amount of drippings in the pan. Repeat the garlic powder. herbs, salt and pepper process. Put the chicken back in the oven for another 15 minutes or so until this side is brown as well.
Pull the chicken out of the oven. Flip all of the pieces over again so that they are skin side up once again. Add about 1/2 c of water per chicken and about 1 tbsp of lemon juice at this time (never add it earlier or the garlic flavor won’t develop). Do not pour pour it over the chicken, just pour it into a corner of the pan (lemon juice dissolves the foil if they touch) Cover the pan tightly with foil. Put it back into the oven and turn the heat down to 400. Bake for 45 minutes.
Remove and check for doneness. You can keep the chicken covered in a 200 degree oven for 20 minutes or so while you finish meal prep and get everyone seated.
Drain off some of the pan drippings and use them to season your rice or to make garlic chicken mashed potatoes.
The chicken can be served out of an earthenware bowl. where it will stay pretty warm, It is great with rice. Leftovers can be served with twice baked potatoes (next recipie)
