Roasted Chicken Leg

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Hi everyone. It’s been about a month since the last post now. I have been on vacation for the past month, visiting Berlin, Paris, Bangkok, Siem Riep, and Phuket. That obviously means I have not been cooking, but maybe I will post some food pictures from my travels later. Anyways, today was the first time I have cooked since being back, and I decided to roast some chicken leg quarters because they were on sale at the market (when you are gone for a month, you come back to an empty fridge). It was a simple recipe that did not require a lot of ingredients, which was well suited to my current situation. So here goes.

Ingredients

  • Chicken leg quarters (or any part of a chicken skin on I suppose)
  • Seasoned salt
  • Garlic Salt
  • Thyme
  • Rosemary
  • Pepper
  • Paprika
  • Olive Oil

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Directions

  • Wash and pat dry the quarters
  • Cut off the excess fat
  • Separate the skin from the meat, but leaving it still attached
  • Mix the seasoned salt, garlic salt, rosemary, thyme, pepper, and paprika together in a small bowl
  • Brush the inside meat and the outside skin of the chicken with olive oil
  • Lightly rub the seasoning mix onto the chicken (both inside the skin on the meat, as well as the outside of the chicken quarters)
  • Place onto a foiled baking pan (make sure to space them out so they cook properly)
  • Bake for 45 min at 350 degrees and then at 425 degrees for the next 15 minutes (total 1 hour)
  • Enjoy

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I paired the chicken with a light mixed salad for a relatively easy and light meal. The skin came out slightly crispy, which is how I like it and the meat was still tender and juicy. It was probably a little too salty, so in the future I would definitely use less salt. But other than that it was a good and pretty hearty meal.

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Roasted Tomato Spaghetti

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So I was trolling Yahoo! Food and came across this recipe for a slow roasted tomato sauce. With nothing better to make, I decided to try it. I realized half way through that I had no meat to pair with it, and was super close to running to the market to pick up something, but ended up doing something more unbelievable…leaving it a vegetarian meal. Both proud and disappointed at the same time, this meal was decent, but not what I expected. I followed the recipe exactly, but it ended up being a little too sweet for my taste (maybe less balsamic next time), or adding meat (the salt from meat would probably even it out).

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Ingredients

  • 1.5 lbs cherry tomatoes
  • 3 cloves garlic, smashed
  • 1/2 cup EVOO
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
  • 2 teaspoons packed light-brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon coarse salt

Instructions

  • Mix tomatoes and garlic in a baking dish
  • Mix EVOO, balsamic, thyme, brown sugar, and salt in a bowl
  • Pour mix over the tomatoes
  • Bake at 325 degrees for about an hour

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So after they were baked/roasted, I honestly did not know what to do with them. I tried to break the tomatoes and mix them to make a sauce, but while the tomatoes broke, the skins didn’t really reduce. So I ended up putting a few of the tomatoes in the food processor and pulsing it a bit to make a sauce that I could mix with my spaghetti. Overall, it was like I said earlier – not what I expected, but I would definitely try it again with a few adjustments.