Easy Baked Chicken

When I first got married the kitchen was often a war zone with lots of bad words when things didn't turn out how I wanted. However sometimes a mistake turned into something good...home made sloppy joes for example. A dear friend of mine made the best baked chicken for me one night and it is something that has become a house favorite in not only mine, but my dad asks for it when we visit. I like to use thigh pieces or the leg and thigh still connected (thigh quarters).

I like to use a combination of Emmeril's Essence and Paula Dean's Home Seasoning. Both recipes can be found at the food network website. I clean the chicken...which means I go and make sure no feathers have been missed as that makes me want to gag and not eat it. Then I rinse it off and put the pieces into a glass baking dish. You want to give each piece a little room. This is so that the chicken gets heat all around, as well as letting the skin get crispy all around. Sprinkle on your favorite spices, just salt and pepper is really good too...lemon pepper would be really good too. Okay anyway....I bake the chicken on 400 for 45 minutes then turned off the heat and let the meat rest. Check the temp of the chicken cause it is supposed to be at 180. I do check half way through to make sure it is baking evenly and will turn the pan cause my oven doesn't like to bake evenly.

Here is an up close picture....and yes that is a new serving plate that I just got at Fred Meyer's. And I love it so much I am really thinking that I need a whole set for dinner dishes. After pulling the chicken out of the pan I used a pastry brush to slap on a bit of he dripping to make the skin glisten. Yes I am aware that you shouldn't eat the skin...I think of it as optional as you can pull the skin off after it has baked all pretty golden brown and locked in the juices.

I made mashed potatoes and green beans. The green beans were easy I drained them and then in a skillet I put some butter and the same spices I used in the chicken and potatoes and got them all nice and hot before putting them on the salad size plate that goes with my gorgeous serving plate. I like to use the Pioneer Woman's recipe for the mashed potatoes and you can get that recipe on her website. BEST MP's EVER! The only thing I do differently is I use regular milk unless it is a special type day needing half and half and I use the house seasoning and Emmeril's that we discussed earlier.

Really easy dinner to put together and if you have any leftovers it warms up really well for lunch the next day.

~Charity