This is my chicken hater converter dish.
I tried a lot of things to lure my sous chef the chicken hater to love home cooked chicken, from cooking the chicken with minimum herb and spices (no, not chicken sashimi, cooked it with ginger and soy sauce-didn't work), to covering the chicken taste with spices (corriander, chilli, tomatoes, curry, even my beloved kecap manis), distracting attention with low cut tops and mini skirts, nothing worked, the only acceptable chicken dish is anything KFC-esque (nobody loves KFC and deep fried chicken than me, but even I wanted a change, plus, my own selfish reason was: I can't eat deep fried chicken yet as of now-LOL)
I had my plan Q (almost Z), I fancied smothering chicken legs with lemon's strong citrusy scent and ofcourse, the richness scent of butter. Now who wouldn't love that...the dish is as simple as dumping things into the oven, I even threw in zucchini for my daily dose of vegetables, all in 1 pot, and hey! It worked! My sous chef went all finger lickin' and complained that I didn't buy enough chicken legs (fresh chickens are expensive lah!)
Ingredients
- the juice of 2 lemons and some zest (wahahaha depends on how citrusy you want it to be)
- 3 pieces of chicken legs (upper and lower thigh), cut half
- 1 zucchini, half, sliced
- 1 onion, 4 cloves of garlic
- salt, sugar, pepper
- 1 or 2 tbsp of butter, olive oil
Preheat oven to 250C, heat from top only, drizzle a little olive oil at the bottom of the pot, lay zucchini, some onions and garlic, lay chicken pieces of top, skin facing up, put some onions and garlic in between, grate some lemon zest, squeeze in the lemon juice, put some pieces of butter in between the chicken pieces, sprinkle salt, pepper and sugar, dump into the oven until skin is browned, shift the heat to be from both top and bottom (skip this step if you want the zucchini pieces charred). After 1.5 hr, the chicken's skin turned crisp and the meat is super tender. Scoop some of the juices onto the chicken from time to time if you want, to add the extra flavor and moisture onto the chicken skin.
I've successfully recruited my sous chef into my chicken-fanatic-cult. MUHAHAHAHA
Lol, 3 chicken legs? Here chicken legs go in packages of 6 :) But it sounds great :) 10x...
ReplyDeleteLOL. That looks amazing! And I'm so with u on this one. Lemon and Butter on chicken.. yum yum.
ReplyDeleteLemon and butter is a great way to make roast chicken even tastier.
ReplyDeleteLooks and sounds pretty delish! I will try it soon... Thanks, Rita.
ReplyDeleteHey, Rita, I had a couple of chicken thighs in the fridge, no lemon, but a lemon-shaped container of preserved lemon juice.
ReplyDeleteI added some bamboo shoots, and, in a moment of madness, poured some sweet & sour sauce over one end of the extended thigh. Think I put in too much butter but it was very delicious and finished the lot (loved the crunchy slices of garlic balanced with the soft-sweetness of the zucchini, onion and bamboo shoots), eating from the glass casserole dish, ha ha. (Well, no one else is home.) ;-)
oh ayam saus lom tohh...
ReplyDeletewingi aku gæ ayam bakar kr sambel tomat Rit hihi.. sayure cap cay Indo. Maem sampe maho..mahokk...maho *fergie sing mode on*
hi denitsa, hehe here you can buy piece by piece ;)
ReplyDeletehi daph and kev...yeah...who wudnt love this combo, eh?
wow argus, u re pretty quick, sweet and sour sauce sounds like a perfect companion ;) hmmm casserole dish should be ok, coming from me, someone who eats rice with my hands off banana leaves often hehe
yin, wah kowe iki...ngiming2i wae...aku durung entuk sambel2an hahaha
That looks delicious! I love the combination of lemon and chicken!
ReplyDeleteHi Rita:
ReplyDeleteMy your lemon chicken dish looks absolutely fabulous!
Hi..So great to find a blog for cooking lovers!!Thanks for sharing..I'l try this recipe.
ReplyDeleteOooo yum. That looks great. And glad you won over the sous chef.
ReplyDeletetiap kesini pasti ngiler aku Rit...bayangin ayamnya ga kuku....hikss...pinter tenan dirimu masak...:D
ReplyDeletehi Rita. saw ur comments on several sites (kitchen snippets and kedai hamburg). i too have problem getting my other half to eat chicken. thank god we both love kfc chicken and thts wht im planning of making for dinner today.
ReplyDeletehave u tried honey bbq chicken? my frens seem to love them tho hubby was just ok w them. lol.
farina
hi all...yeah...keeping the chicken love is an ongoing battle...share some chicken love with me, would you? ^_^
ReplyDeletehi farina...i loveee kfc too...i wish i cud have it for tonight's dinner ^_^
Another way to eat chicken is to marinate cubes of breast meat and/or thighs and wings in satay combo (turmeric, brown sugar, ginger, lemongrass, salt) and panfry it if you don't feel like BBQing it outside or in the oven.
ReplyDeleteAlso, gently boiling chicken thighs in a Chinese herbal soup concoction with a few cloves of garlic for 45-50 minutes makes it really tender and tasty. Add a teaspoon of soy sauce and salt only at the end.