I guess that, after getting married, Monica was feeling like her life was no longer hectic enough, so she decided to re-invent the Gutsy Cooks Club. This time the format is a little different--each cook will pick a cookbook of the month and pick a different recipe for each week. Monica chose Lucinda Scala Quinn--new to me--who wrote Mad Hungry and Mad Hungry Cravings.
I served the chicken with couscous and haricots verts from Trader Joe's.
I have to say this was sort of a slapdash recipe. One of the ingredients was "some fresh herbs (if you have them)," for example. Well, even if I didn't have them, I could get them. But if you've made this before, do you have any ideas about what might be especially apt? I had basil, rosemary, and thyme, so I used them all, and they were fine, but I wouldn't have minded a hint.
More significantly, the recipe doesn't say what to do with the marinade. My understanding is that the current thinking is that you shouldn't cook meat, especially, in the marinade. But the last instruction in the recipe is to "save all those delicious, lemony, chicken juices that collected in the pan." The only way that lemony juices are going to collect in the pan is if you pour the lemon marinade over the chicken while it's baking. Well, I did it, and neither of us died (or even sickened), but still.
The other problem: neither of us is a big fan of chicken thighs. I didn't substitute breasts because 1) I wanted to try the recipe as is and 2) breasts would be more likely to dry out.
The honey-mustard-olive oil glaze gave the chicken pieces a nice brown crust. Be very careful! They went from barely browned to almost burned in a few seconds. The glaze looked good. But neither of us eats chicken skin, so it was pretty much wasted on us.
TASTE-O-METER:
Jim: I'll give it a 5. It's okay, but not great. I don't particularly want to eat it again. I didn't pick up the honey-mustard flavor, which might have made them better, but I didn't want to eat the skin.
Marie: I agree with what Jim said, but I'd translate that to a 7, not a 5, because I think a 5 means "complete failure," and 7 means B-/C+. I did eat a bite of the skin, and that did add another flavor dimension. I might try a version with skinless, boneless chicken breasts, but that would really be an entirely different recipe.
Marie,
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with your comments about this being slapdash. It really didn't go into much detail and I too would have appreciated a few suggestions about what the author used as fresh herbs. I also just used what I had on hand. We do not like chicken thighs at my house either but they seem to be the trendy meat these days. I will try this with breasts and see how it goes.
Raymond
Ohhh we are skin and thigh people over at the MP house. So we ate the skin (crispy) and the thighs were juicy.. Raymond said his breast were juicy too - so I guess is working with either meat.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you this book is not for a new cook.. since it does leave a lot of "what do I do now".. but, that is why we need to be Gutsy and go with our guts. I also used what I has when it came to the "fresh herbs".
You made me laugh about not dying.. I figure that at a 375 temp in the oven with 35-40 minutes cooking time, the hot oil will kill anything in its path. I'm saving the drippings for another recipe.
The crust looks good! My guy is a big fan of crispy chicken skin. I decided to roast a whole chicken with the recipe and it came out great.
ReplyDeleteWe made it with chicken breasts (don't care for thighs) and yes, it was a bit dry. However, I also added salmon to the mix in a separate pan and cooked for less time and it was delicious.
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