Roasted Chicken Thigh

Hooray I got to cook dinner!!! It's been a rarity since I usually get home so late from teaching and I've started working at Kohls on the weekends. I made this during one of my work from home days. This recipe was not only easy but very delicious.

1. Heat oven to 400F. Thoroughly clean the chicken legs with warm water and drain. Make a couple of slits on the meaty part of chicken thighs. Peel 2-3 potatoes and cut into wedges.
2. Cut up about a cup of butternut squash, 3 garlic cloves, and one onion. Place everything in a shallow baking dish.
3. Place the cleaned chicken legs on top of the potatos, rub some poultry seasoning on the chicken and place the bacon strips on top of the chicken.  Add in rosemary sprigs and salt and pepper to taste.
4. Bake for 35-45 minutes until chicken and potatoes are fork tender. Brush the chicken with maple syrup and broil for 5-10 minutes.

Fancy Steak Mash & Alfredo

There are three parts to this elegant dish. The dish looks better if you grill it but since I don't have a grill I just used a skillet.

Meat: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Put a little olive oil in a 13 x 9 dish. Sprinkle some rosemary, salt and pepper on the oil. For the meat take a fillet and wrap it with bacon. Use toothpicks to secure the bacon. Season both sides with salt and pepper. Put olive oil on the grill or skillet. Brown both sides of the meat (about 3-5 minutes). You can do two at a time. Afterwards put the meat in the baking dish. When all of the pieces have been browned place the baking dish in the oven. Bake for 10-20 minutes depending on how rare you want your steak. You should flip the meat halfway through.

Wine Reduction: In a skillet mix a cup of red wine, a cup of your preferred broth, a tbsp of rosemary, and two minced garlic cloves. Simmer the sauce and stir every few minutes until it reduces to about 1/4 to 1/2 cup. This takes about 20 to30 minutes. Strain the sauce to get the rosemary and garlic out before serving. This can be made up to a day ahead.

Spinach Mash: Take 4-6 potatoes cut into pieces and boil them until they are mashable. Mince a garlic clove, one red onion and about a cups worth of spinach. In another pot put some oil and toss in the onions. After a minute put in the garlic. Make sure the onions and garlic don't burn! Put the spinach into the pot and stir until properly wilted. If it looks like it might burn add a tbsp of olive oil in there. Take the pot off the heat and add the potatoes. Mash the mixture together.  Put the pot back on the stove on a low setting. Add a carton of plain yogurt, salt, pepper, 2 tsp garlic powder and 2 tbsp of parmesan. Mix properly over the low heat for about 5 minutes.

Alfredo from scratch: Melt half a stick of butter. Add 3 tbsp of flour. Add a cup of grated parmesan cheese, 100 g of cream cheese and one cup of milk. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, parsley and merken (or whatever other flavoring you want). You need to stir the sauce constantly so it doesn't burn. Add more milk until you reach your desired consistency. Cook some fettuccine while you are making the sauce.

Here's another picture of the finished dish. You can drizzle the reduction sauce on the beef and/or the mash.

Lemon Rosemary Stuffed Chicken

This was a delicious bird. When I initially took it out of the oven it wasn't completely cooked. I think it was because I was cooking a bunch of stuff simultaneously and I didn't want the other food to burn but the following recipe should be correct.

 

Ingredients:

whole chicken

2 shallots

2 lemons quartered

2 sprigs fresh rosemary 

3 garlic cloves crushed

garlic powder  

1 cup chicken stock  

olive oil 

2 tomatoes cut into slices

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Clean out the cavity of the chicken.  

3.. Stuff the chicken with 1 sprig of rosemary, the garlic,

2 shallots and lemons. 

4. Drizzle some olive oil into the cavity. Season with salt and pepper and make sure everything in the cavity is well mixed.

5.  Place the chicken in a 13 x 9 baking dish. Drizzle some olive oil on the chicken.

6. Mince the other rosemary sprig and rub rosemary, salt, pepper, and garlic powder on the outside of the chicken. Pour a cup of chicken stock into the pan.

7. Bake in the oven for 1.5 hours. Baste the chicken at least twice. 

8. Take the tomatoes and other vegetables of your choosing and toss it into the baking dish. Switch the oven to broil and broil the chicken for 10-20  more minutes. If you have a meat thermometer, chicken is properly cooked when it hits 165 degrees Fahrenheit.