Happy summer festive friends and merry makers!

Happy 4th to the US citizens in the crowd and happy long weekend if you’re having one.

We’re down in that summer shit now for sure.

While this menu has next to nothing to do with the US birthday going on this weekend I simply don’t fucking care.

Words are not efficient enough to describe the pure deliciousness of todays’ meal. It is so insanely delicious that frankly I feel like doing a goddamn mike drop and I didn’t even invent the fucker.

Before getting started I unearthed this the other day and felt it needed to be shared again.

Still one of the single coolest presents ever. Thanks youngest right!

Yep, we are venturing back to the chicken well again today. I’ve got a pretty strong infatuation with bone-in skin on drumsticks and thighs lately.

I can trace this back to when I lived with 2 of my brothers rather than the current one brother. Eldest brother didn’t like his chicken on the bone and basically didn’t like dark meat at all. I always had to throw some boneless skinless chicken breast into the mix if I was also cooking bone-in dark meat chicken.

Did you know that Americans consume approximately 10 meals a month with chicken as the main protein and of those 10 meals less than 2 of them have dark meat chicken?

America, that is stupid as fuck.

Eldest brother usually mentioned something about the meat having veins or little bones and also didn’t like the skin. 

Really.

As it turns out this isn’t all that weird of a phenomenon. A couple of folks at work also don’t like chicken on the bone but most will make an exception for wings.

Still neglecting legs and thighs with that mindset people.

You would think with 80 percent of chicken meals being white meat chicken that we would have mountains of uneaten dark meat chicken laying around.

And you would be right.

In fact a great deal of the leftover dark meat is sold and shipped to…Russia.

Russians actually like the “gamier” dark meat and buy it in bulk from the US.

Growing up when I did there was no such damn thing as boneless skinless SHIT. Basically you could buy whole chickens, cut up chickens and that’s about it. I remember them being labeled with names like “Young hen”, “Fryer” and “Roaster”. Every damn thing bone-in skin-on AND WE LIKED IT!

Sure you can fry boneless, skinless chicken breast but it’s not the same fucking thing. You got to pick up that fried chicken leg and devour that motherfucker with two great big bites. Grab another piece and repeat.

Also the line between perfectly cooked boneless skinless chicken breast and OVERCOOKED boneless, skinless chicken breast is as thin as the proverbial pubic hair. You get that shit overcooked and you just ruined some (VERY) expensive chicken.

I believe my current infatuation is a direct result of being able to consume – en masse – chicken legs and thighs now without also having to add in the boneless breasts.

And people? Do I ever fucking do just that. You’ll see absolute positive evidence of that right here today.

I’m FREE!

In the past my no doubt, clear cut, best chicken leg recipe like fucking ever belonged to this amazing concoction.

That’s our James Beard Chicken and 40 clove recipe.

Insanely delicious. Why you got some? I’d eat the FUCK out of that RIGHT NOW!

Still one of my all time favorite menus ever.

Not to denigrate that recipe in any way but just to clearly state how ridiculous todays’ recipe is.

This dish today IS that fucking delicious.

Our recipe comes courtesy of Melissa Clark of the New York Times Cooking section. Melissa has authored over 40 cookbooks and has also received multiple awards from the James Beard Foundation for her efforts. Extremely talented and worthy of all of the accolades, I am honored to feature one of her more famous recipes today.

I give to you Melissa Clark’s “Chile-Roasted Chicken With Honey, Lemon and Feta.”

It is outstanding.

 

“3 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and drumsticks

Salt and black pepper

2 large garlic cloves, finely grated or crushed to a paste

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

¼ teaspoon red-pepper flakes, plus more for serving

2 fresh rosemary sprigs

1 lemon, preferably a Meyer lemon, thinly sliced and seeded

2 ounces feta, crumbled into large pieces (a heaping 1/2 cup)”

Very few and very simple ingredients today as it ought to be. Doesn’t it seem like the tastier dishes all stand out because of their simplicity?

We begin with Señor chicken.

Legs and thighs are the new style and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

Then we break out the players. The primary elements of the dish if you will.

As always if you’ve only got a handful of ingredients in the recipe try and use the very best of each ingredient possible.

Told you this shit was easy.

We’re actually going to “muddle” the garlic to form a paste.

Yep, I broke out my bartender “muddler” for just this occasion.

Now the lemon.

I didn’t find a Meyer lemon so we’ve got the basic lemon on hand. We’re going to slice the lemon into thin slices. Obviously we will discard the seeds

Let’s get a quick marinade going here.

Start by seasoning the chicken liberally with salt and pepper. Next get the chicken in a bowl and add the garlic, honey, red pepper flakes and olive oil. Using your hands, thoroughly mix everything into each chicken piece. Toss in the rosemary and lemon slices and combine.

Be sure to wrap it up tightly.

This can marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes or can be stored in the fridge for up to 8 hours. I think mine was about a 4 hour marinade.

When ready to cook remove the chicken from the fridge and let come up to room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

I felt we needed to use a big enough pan for this dish to ensure the chicken was in a single layer so I broke out the trusty roasting pan.

Then lined it carefully with parchment paper. A pretty key step.

Place the chicken strategically in the roasting pan skin side down and be sure each piece gets some lemon on it. Use everything left in the bowl from the marinating process to coat.

Now let’s talk about this glorious stuff.

I absolutely LOVE this shit. Love it. Feta is a sheeps milk cheese and has a tang, bite and salt level that is close to goddamn perfect. You can put it on damn near any fucking thing and it will work.

I’ve shared my addiction to Greek food with all of you, and to my 12-step Greek Food Addiction class, and feta is as big a part of that addiction as anything. Wait until you see what it brings to this dish.

Cook the chicken for 20 minutes in the preheated oven then remove and give each piece a flip with a pair of tongs.

We will cook it skin side up for the final roasting to try and get the skin as crispy as we can.

Now dress it up with the feta.

I pushed the lemon slices to the side to coat the tops of the chicken with the feta.

Into the oven again for 20-25 minutes. I split the difference and cooked for 23 minutes.

Then.

Wow. Just wow.

Let’s get this on the plate already before I fucking die!

At this point you can drizzle with a bit more olive oil and can also sprinkle a few more red pepper flakes as desired.

Simple sides to accompany today. A spinach salad and some garlic toast. Did I use some more of my frozen leftover homemade French bread to make the garlic bread?

You are one astute motherfucker. Of course I did.

You absolutely MUST spoon some of the juices from the roasting pan over the top of that chicken. I wish there was more but you want to use as much of the juices as you can.

I gave you bread for a reason! Sop that shit up with the bread.

Let’s get a close up of the thigh.

How about the drumstick?

It’s crispy, tangy, the skin is crisp, you get the garlic, you get the lemon but the salt level from the feta is fucking legendary. There’s a low simmer from the red pepper flake but nothing overpowering.

It’s buttery and juicy and unctuous, dripping with juices.

You know what you’ll hear while people are eating this?

Animal noises. You’ll hear grunting and snarling but you won’t hear words. There are no fucking words.

Stop and wipe those juices off of your chin you fucking savage.

Go ahead and dive back in.

The rarely seen but absolutely required in this case…The second helping plate!

I mean! Look at it!

I think the final body count was 4 legs and 2 thighs consumed.

I paired the meal with a lovely pinot grigio and let’s just say that by the time I was done eating, the bottle was empty.

I’m not often slapped upside the damn head by a meal but this bastard today? It played my head like a goddamn bongo drum.

Obviously you have an idea what the dish should taste like, hell you put the damn thing together but I did not see the outright alchemy – nay sorcery – that these ingredients would have when cooked together.

Magnificent.

A showstopper. Ten out of ten stars.

Best of all easy, inexpensive and ridiculously delicious.

Thank you so much Melissa. You’ve officially achieved legendary status and the world is a much more delicious place having you in it.

Try it.

Seriously.

Holy shit I feel like I need a cigarette and a shower after that.

Orgasmic is a good adjective here.

I truly hope all of you have a great rest of the weekend. If you’re visiting with family enjoy being with them. If you’re still not ready to go outside then cook something special for yourself or just have some drinks and order takeout.

Most of all have fun.

Thanks for being there you wonderful people.

See you next week.

 

Be Safe.

Be Well.

PEACE!