Sunday, May 8, 2011

Roast Chicken Legs with Lemon and Thyme:
Your oven may not like it, but your tastebuds will

Moist, juicy, tasty chicken legs and thighs are just minutes away with Roast Chicken Legs with Lemon and Thyme (click for the recipe).
   The terrific quick dish is from the late, great Gourmet magazine, which I still miss since it stopped being published in October 2009.
   It had a great “Quick Kitchen” section in every issue that was always chock-full of excellent recipes for elegant, delicious weeknight dishes.
   This recipe is one of them.
   While it produces amazing chicken in about half an hour, including prep time, this recipe is a bit of an oven killer. If you've been thinking of cleaning your oven, this is a great meal make to give you some added motivation.
   Because the chicken needs be roasted at a high heat (500 F) with the oven rack in the upper third of the oven, it does send some of the oil it’s tossed in splattering, with some possible accompanying smoke.
   This could be corrected, I’m guessing, by using a 17x12-inch pan (baking sheet size), but with higher sides than the one inch called for in the recipe. Looking online, I see such a pan exists.
   However, if you’re like my husband and I, you’ll just crack a window, and clean the oven later.This chicken is worth the bother, it’s that good.
   The leftovers even warmed up beautifully the next day in the microwave.
   Chicken thighs and drumsticks, skin on, are tossed with olive oil, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper in a large bowl, then transferred to a baking pan.
   The chicken is baked 10 minutes, then four lemon slices are added to the pan. The chicken is baked for another 15 to 20 minutes.
   Serve.

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