What I Used

• Chicken drumsticks, 8 small ones or 4 American-sized ones
• Soy sauce, 8 teaspoons
• Ground Sichuan pepper, ½ teaspoon
• Ground black pepper, ½ teaspoon
• Salt, ½ teaspoon
• MSG, ½ teaspoon
• Peanut oil, 3 tablespoons
• Garlic, 3 cloves diced
• Mild fresh green pepper, ¼ cup diced
• Cilantro, 1 tablespoon, chopped
• Coca-Cola, 16oz.

What I Did

• Lay out the package of chicken drumsticks.
• Pick up each drumstick, take a knife, and put a couple scores (small cuts) into the meat of each drumstick.
• Put the chicken right back down where it was.
• Sprinkle salt, black pepper, sichuan pepper, and MSG on top of the drumsticks.
• Pour the soy sauce on top of the chicken.
• Give each piece a quick turn, just to mix everything up and cover the chicken.
• Walk away for 10 minutes and enjoy a beer.
• Heat a wok or pan, add the peanut oil, and get that up to the smoking point. Leave it on high heat.
• Add the chicken and marinade liquid. If you haven’t already, turn on a fan.
• Your oil will be pissed at you. It will try to hurt you, but you have to keep moving the chicken around. Maybe you have a pair of super long tongs, good for you. Zhao Jian just does this with a normal pair of chopsticks. Pain is gain folks.
• Once the skin is a rich, tasty brown, add the garlic and green pepper and stir for 15 seconds. Still on high heat.
• Add Coca-Cola.
• Bring it up to a simmer and turn the heat down just to keep the simmer going.
• Put the lid on.
• Wait. The amount of liquid that will evaporate depends on your lid and the seal, so this part isn’t an exact science. If after 30 minutes you still aren’t at the next step, remove the lid and reduce the liquid until you reach it.
• When most of the liquid is gone, remove the lid and put the heat on low. The last bit of reduction is touchy and subjective, so don’t try to automate it. The sugar in the Coca-Cola will have caramelized and thickened it into a glaze. A lot of people say these things are ready “when it coats the back of a spoon.” If that works for you, fine. I just stir it around and when it coats the chicken in a way that looks so appetizing I have to stop cooking it and eat it, I do.
• Cut the heat, add the cilantro, and stir.
• Plate. It will still be hot so give it a couple minutes to cool. This will also help the glaze stick to the chicken as more water is lost in the wait.

Recipe Info

• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Cooking Time: 30-45 minutes
• Total Time: 50-65 minutes
• Servings: 4

If you have some problem with MSG, leave it out, fine. Arguing with MSG haters is about as hilarious and useless as asking a flat-earther for directions.

In any case you should be left with sweet chicken just short of falling off the bone. Make sure to keep a few napkins around.

I enjoy creating mostly original recipes but sometimes you just have to throw down some basics and pump out a trusty good meal. Take a whole chicken, cook it in an oven with a time-tested herb combination and declare victory.

Because of the “trusty” factor I’ve heard variations on this dish described as The One Dish Any Kitchen-Stupid Guy Should Learn to Cook for a Woman to Impress and Woo Her. This take will certainly fit into that category. To be horribly stereotypical: Tender roasted herb chicken, vegetables, and the taste of champagne? That’s a four-pitch walk; take first base.

What I used

• Chicken, whole
• Rosemary, fresh, stems removed
• Thyme, fresh, stems removed
• Carrot, small diced
• Shallot, small diced
• Celery, small diced
• Champagne (or more accurately any “sparkling wine”)
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Unsalted Butter
• All Purpose Flour

What I Did

1. Finely chop a bunch of the rosemary and thyme. (See picture above) Combine with olive oil and a liberal dose of salt to make a rub.
2. Take the whole chicken and spatchcock it. Yes, that’s a real word. It’s just a term for butterflying a whole chicken. There’s a great video on YouTube showing how to do this which I’ve embeded below. Save the chicken bones, especially that back bone, for future stock.
3. Place a layer of celery stalks on the bottom of a pyrex dish or baking pan and lay the chicken skin-side up on top.
4. Rub the herb mix all over the skin of the chicken. Move to a 450°F oven until internal temperature hits 170°F or ~50 minutes.
5. In a saucepan over medium heat add butter to melt. Sweat the shallot, celery, and carrot. (Make sure to add salt here)
6. Add flour and stir until the excess fat hydrates it and continue to cook for a couple minutes.
7. While stirring, add champagne and bring up to a boil. If the sauce seems too thick, add more champagne. Too thin? Let some of the liquid cook out of the uncovered saucepage.
8. Turn down to a simmer and leave for 30 minutes
9. Right before serving mount the sauce with a pad of butter and pour onto a plate. Top with finished chicken.

Spatchcocking is technique typically used for grilling chicken on a BBQ. By creating a flatter chicken we decrease cooking time and allow for higher heat applications. High heat equals crispy skin and as you might be able to tell from the photos, the chicken skin could be browner. It came out crispy and delicious but I think you could crank the oven to 500°F on this.

The celery lining the bottom of the baking dish is just an aromatic replacement for a baking rack. It keeps the chicken elevated above its own leaking juices so that the base doesn’t go for a swim and get soggy. And if you want you can eat them. Try doing that with a metal baking rack.*

Want some other simple roast chicken recipes?

• Roast Chicken for Julia @ Food Wishes
• Chicken, Three Ways @ Pastry Methods and Techniques
• Basil Garlic Roasted Chicken @ goodLife {eats}™

* For the love of God don’t actually try this. It takes hours and hours of braising to make one of these taste good.

I don’t care much to talk about work on this blog, but all you need to know for now is I make web things. More and more these days that entails making web things in places far away from home. Some of these places lack burners or an oven. Or a refrigerator… or a microwave…

The point is I’m a bit hindered from cooking anything right now. Combined with a couple logistical problems when home that I’d rather not get into, lest this post turn into a foaming-at-the-mouth rant against the world, I’ve cooked exactly one thing since my last post.

With all that in mind this post may look like a weak workaround to the situation. But I swear, I was going to write this anyway, before this all developed. Anyway, I’m not sure what near-future updating frequency is going to look like. As for this post…

About This Burger Stuff

My previous post was an entry for Foodie Fights Battle 5. Good (and now aged) news: I won. Yay. At the same time I was gently nudged by Elle to enter the recipe in Chez Us’ Ultimate Burger Contest. They’re a cool little couple based out of San Francisco with a great blog, so do look around. Well anyway, I won. Yay!

It may have taken 24 posts but I finally made something edible. However, in searching for a fight-worthy combination of Gorgonzola and arugula this turned out to be the third thing I cooked. I almost submitted a different recipe, pictured at the top of this post, which I’ll get to shortly. But first thing’s first. I cooked a different lamb slider…

Lamb Slider, Take One

• Same Mini Kaiser Rolls
• Same Gorgonzola Mayonnaise
• Instead of Gremolata the arugula is just thrown on the burger
• The lamb meat is mixed with roughly chopped Jalapeños

I didn’t like any part of how the arugula was just slapped on. Holy crap at the difference some lemon zest and garlic can make. A couple nights later I went down a different road.

Barbecued Chicken Breast Stuffed w/ Pear, Arugula, & Gorgonzola

Ingredients

• Chicken Breast, boneless and skinless
• 1/8″ slices of fresh pear
• Gorgonzola, small crumbles
• Baby Arugula
• Lime, for juicing
• Toothpicks

Instructions

1. Take a paring or utility knife and cut a small slit in the side of the chicken breast.
2. While trying to minimize the size of the cut on the outside, work the knife inside the breast to create a hollow pouch.
3. Stuff the chicken breast pouch thingy with two slices of pear, a tablespoon of Gorgonzola, and as much arugula after the fact as it can handle.
4. Sew up the hole in the chicken breast up by using one or more toothpicks. Salt liberally.
5. Throw it on a hot charcoal barbecue and cook evenly until you get an internal temperature reading on a thermometer of 165&deg F. Every couple minutes squeeze some lime juice on it.
6. Move to a plate. Remove the toothpicks. Let rest for 10 minutes.

That’s it. The whole thing just made me shrug. It was tasty enough, but seemed a bit boring. So back to the sliders I went with some changes.

And here we are. Now that this post is done I’ve got nothing new to run with. So if you see a new post on this site within the next week, I can guarantee it will be some weak-ass reach into the way-back vault, full of the dishes and horrible pictures I amassed months before this blog started. Seriously, nobody wants to see that.

I’m not going to begin to take credit for this dish. Kathryn M. showed me this simple thing sophomore year of college (2004?) Although she started with Teriyaki sauce and didn’t use basil. I don’t remember if there was garlic, but I do remember you shouldn’t set the pyrex dish on top of a hot oven burner while you’re prepping. ;)

I guess I should note, sooner or later, that I’m not keen on putting amounts on ingredient lists. I think each person should tune amounts to their own preferences until they find something they like, and I usually eyeball everything anyway. And who am I to say two cloves of garlic or twenty?

Also I can’t count past three or add fractions. :(

What I Used

• Chicken Breast
• Soy Sauce
• Honey
• Garlic, minced
• Basil, fresh whole leaf and chiffanade

What I Did

1. In small saucepan mix and heat soy, honey and reduce
2. Place chicken in Pyrex dish, grind pepper and put garlic on top
3. Pour in soy mixture until liquid is ½ inch from rim of dish
4. Place a few basil leaves on the top and bake in 400° oven for 40 minutes
5. Serve and finish with sauce from dish and basil chiffanade

The basil leaves being baked wont make a huge impact on the dish flavor but will make your kitchen smell like something other than Hot Pockets and beer for a few hours.

When pouring the sweetened soy on top of the chicken, some of the garlic pieces will run away with it into the cracks. This is good. Some should flavor the sauce and some should roast on top.

Some extra steps you can take:

• Pour or brush a little honey on top of the chicken prior to adding pepper, garlic, and soy mixture for color and caramelization.
• Every 10 minutes baste the chicken using a large spoon or baster of choice.