Roast Chicken Dinner

Jo has previously posted her Roast Chicken recipe which is much fancier than mine.  Admittedly, Jo is a much more precise and imaginative cook whereas I'm rather slap-dash with things.

That's what I love about roasted chicken--it's easy, throws together quickly, and is flexible on ingredients but is still really tasty.  With my decided lack of preplanning these are all key elements in getting something on the table around here. Recipe follows below...

Sweet & Spicy Marinade

This one of my go to marinades for chicken and pork. In fact it's absolutely wonderful used on the grilled items. I've adjusted the spice factor several times for the tastes of guests. It requires a specific ingredient which you should be able to find in the ethnic foods section of your grocery store.



I always buy this brand and no, I haven't a clue how to pronounce the name of the company, I just call it Rooster brand. This is not the same thing as the Chili sauce with the dispensing spout. This sauce has actual red chili seeds in it. It's thicker, more like a paste. Now on with the recipe....


1c brown sugar
1/4c ketchup
1/4c soy sauce
1/4c rum
1/2c chili sauce (I've used as little as 2 Tbs)
2 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
1 tsp dry mustard
dash of black pepper

I use a 2c pyrex measuring cup for all the liquid ingredients first then dump them into a bowl and then add the remaining ingredients. Once this is mixed well, place 3lbs mixed bone in chicken parts in a ziptop bag, pour half of the marinade into bag, close bag and massage to cover each piece of chicken in marinade. Place in refrigerator for 1 hour. Simmer remaining marinade in a small pot on low heat until thickened to preferred consistency, and let cool off heat.

Preheat oven to 425*
Empty bag of chicken and marinade into a 9 x 11 baking pan, arrange chicken in one layer skin side up. Bake for 25 min. Remove from oven and baste chicken with marinade in pan, return to oven for another 20-25 min. Remove from oven and let rest 5-10 min. Serve chicken with cooked marinade alongside.

Yes you have to cook the marinade down as it's really not a good dipping sauce otherwise. You can also cook the sauce down and use it as a wing sauce too.

Chicken Casserole

For the last week we've been getting totally pounded by snowstorms.  Two blizzards!  Growing up in upstate NY we were much more prepared for getting buried.  We had snowsuits and thermal underwear (not exactly fashionable, but when it's -20 degrees F, you need it), firewood stocked, snowblowers and BIG plows.  Here in the mid-Atlantic, they close schools for an inch of white stuff and since I've lived here, usually they see about 4 inches of snow in total over the course of the entire winter.  This is what my town looks like today:

So, to say the least, getting over three feet of snow in the last few days has completely shut down the area.  BabyBella hasn't been to school since last week and a State of Emergency has been declared twice.  Thankfully, we still have power and the kitchen is well-stocked.  Yet, after a week of this we're both getting a little stir crazy and had to get out to stretch our legs during a lull in the storms.

Since its ridiculously cold outside, to help keep the house warm (have I mentioned that my house is over 100 years old and doesn't have insulation?) I've been doing a lot of comfort-food cooking that involves either long simmer times or baking.  One of my favorite comfort foods is an adaptation of a chicken casserole recipe that a friend brought me as a welcome home gift after having BabyBella. Recipe after the break...

Is America too stupid?

I've made an effort for the last 15 years to cook for my family and avoid prepackaged or processed food. So the other day I ran across a blog post from Michael Ruhlman, http://blog.ruhlman.com/2010/01/america-too-stupid-to-cook.html I love Michael Ruhlman, it was through his creativity and curiosity that brought to the world the recipes and technical mastery of Thomas Keller's French Laundry. I admit I haven't made any of the recipes in this coffee table work of art book. I drool at the images, the techniques, the details the chefs put into the prep of the ingredients, and the amazing outcome. But again is America too stupid to cook? No, I don't believe that is the problem. America is time crunched, or cash strapped.

More after the break...