Chickens, lend me your thighs

I’d like to begin this post by saying – I realize I haven’t really been bringing it lately. I’ll try and do better.

With that in mind, if you can’t be interesting, at least give people something tasty to think about. Meat eating people that is; at least for today. Last spring I bumbled around and came up with the following recipe, which I highly recommend for a relatively uncomplicated and quick dinner which is still (I think) tasty, and not boring.

Chicken with root vegetables and garlic aioli mustard

Bone-in chicken, skin on (I recommend dark meat)
Assorted root vegetables: onions, carrots, celery, leeks. (You could probably also use fennel, shallots, and maybe even turnips, but I haven’t tried any of those so I can’t speak to that.)
Several whole cloves garlic
Olive oil, salt, pepper
Fresh dill
Trader Joes Garlic Aioli Mustard (frankly, in my opinion, the whole thing hangs on this one piece, although by all means if you have your own favorite mustard, go with it. Just not too spicy, & definitely not plain yellow mustard. NB. If I were trying to be fancy, I’d tell you how to make your own garlic aioli mustard. I’m not. However if I figure out how to do so in future I will certainly share.)

Now then. Preheat your oven to about 375-400 F.

I’ve done this with anywhere between a pound and about three pounds of chicken; choose a baking dish in which you can arrange all the chicken comfortably, without the pieces being too crowded together. First, loosen the skin (but do not remove) and apply a medium coating of mustard between the meat and the skin. Place chicken in the baking dish. Then, prep vegetables, chopping into roughly equivalent sized chunks; adjust the amount of root vegetables according to the quantity of chicken. You’ll want them to cover the chicken, at least. Peel the garlic and crush using the side of your knife, then add to dish. I have a spray container for my olive oil – so I give it all a good spray at this point. Add salt and pepper. Run dill under water until all dirt is washed away, then cut back the woody stems and discard them. Personally, I don’t chop or dice the dill much; but again, that’s a matter of preference.  Liberally add dill.

Cover dish (either with lid, if it has one, or with foil) and bake until chicken reaches temperature of 170 F, usually 30-50 minutes depending on quantity of chicken.

It’s going to smell amazing. Most of the time, I make this for myself and because there are so many vegetables, I don’t bother with a side. However, I think some nice rosemary roasted potatoes might be lovely to go with it; or wild rice perhaps. Don’t try and do the potatoes in the same pan, they’ll take too long and you’ll either end up with crunchy hard potatoes or dry chicken.

One of these days I’ll get a good camera and then I can be like my hero the Pioneer Woman and illustrate this all with photos, but until then you’ll just have to take my word for it.