Lemon and Rosemary chicken

Last night I decided to make Baked Lemon Rosemary Chicken. Here is the link to the original recipe if you want to check it out:
http://entertaininganytime.typepad.com/sparkling_ink/2010/10/lemon-rosemary-chicken-bake.html

This recipe had a few pros and cons, but the pros definitely outweigh the cons because it was DELICIOUS! The directions are not that specific, so people who feel the need to strictly adhere to a recipe will not be thrilled by the original, but never fear! I have more exact measurements to share! Also I did my normal tweeking which I think will make it just a bit better. Another plus to this meal is that it is only one dish for cooking! So less clean up which makes me happy because I hate washing dishes like a cat hates baths in the toilet (not that I've ever tried that method). The other plus is how EASY this recipe is! Matt said, he thinks he could even do it! I agreed so long as he promised to use the meat thermometer because usually the guy tries to feed me rare chicken and I have to explain rare is for beef ONLY. And whole beef, not ground! For some reason I'm just not into the E.coli thing, I'm more of a tick-borne bacteria fan, whatevs.
So without further ado....

Baked Lemon Rosemary Chicken

YUM YUM DINNER!

Ingredients (serves 6)
- 5 chicken legs
-5 chicken thighs
- 1.5 lemons cut into wedges
- 1.5 pounds of potatoes cut into wedges (I used Yukon Golds)
- 10 peeled cloves of garlic
- 3 tablespoons garlic olive oil (plain works too)
- fresh rosemary (three 6" sprigs, de stemmed)
- coarse salt & pepper
- 1 3/4c dry white wine

Preheat oven to 400F

Put chicken into a roasting dish & toss in the potatoes and lemon wedges. Add in the peeled garlic cloves, you can halve some of the largest cloves.

Sprinkle olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper over the other ingredients and toss until all are evenly coated. Pour in the dry white wine. Bake at 400 F for 40-50 minutes until tender, fragrant and beautifully browned.

Before baking, you can see the chicken and potatoes all together with the garlic, lemon and seasonings

Picture 2 of the "Before" chicken

 Now this should have taken only 40-50 minutes, but because I was so excited about taking pictures for the blog and getting everything just right, the oven some how got turned off. I don't know if I did it or Matt did it but either way when the timer went off the oven was cool and the chicken was definitely not done! SOOOO I turned the oven back on, said the heck with waiting for it to pre-heat and just left the pan in there for 50 minutes longer. This means dinner was served at 9:50 PM. God Bless Matt and his patience!  He was very nice about it all and took it in stride and said it was worth the wait. This was absolutely delicious and was even great the next day for lunches!

Better late than never! Dinner is served!

So so yummy! PLEASE, try this at home :-)

So after making this and eating it, I started to think about variations you could do... (WARNING: I HAVE NOT TRIED THESE VARIATIONS MYSELF, I JUST THOUGHT THESE WOULD BE SOME OPTIONS)

You could probably substitute in chicken breasts, but be careful because they probably won't be as juicy. I was thrilled that Chicken legs and thighs were only $0.99/lb so I just went with it, but I'm sure you could also just get a whole chicken and butcher it using all the parts which might be cheaper but more labor intensive.  I'm also a lazy chef so cheap and already hacked apart chicken parts were great for me. The original recipe called only for legs but I went with thighs as well because 1.) They were on sale and 2.) you get more meat off of them.

 If you wanted to have a more Italian flare to this dish, you could remove the lemons and pour a can of crushed tomatoes over the chicken and potatoes and even add in some basil if you wanted!

What if you're feeling a bit Indian? Leave out the wine, lemons and rosemary, and sprinkle the chicken and potatoes with Garam Masala, toss in some grated ginger, cardamom, the crushed tomatoes and top with Greek yogurt?Maybe!

I love thinking about new options for different dishes so be prepared in the future for different, but perhaps not tested options!

Hope you enjoy this dish and feel free to comment any time if you have questions or a great recipe you'd like me to try and then blog about!
Happy eating!