Two Alarm Chicken
We had some frozen drumsticks in our deep freezer that made it through the power outage. We decided that even though they were still frozen, it would be better to use them up sooner rather than later. I stuck them in the fridge to defrost earlier this week.
I found a recipe in How to Cook Everything for Roasted Chicken Parts with Olive Oil and Herbs. You heat some olive oil (or butter) in a roasting pan in a 450 oven until the oil is hot. Then you put in your chicken parts skin side up (I used 8 drumsticks), sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, you blend 1/4 cup of olive oil with 1/2 cup fresh herbs (I used parsley and tarragon) to make a paste. (Note that you'll be applying the paste in 3 applications.) You take the chicken out, spoon over some of the paste, turn over the drumsticks, and coat with more of the paste. Put back in the oven for 10 minutes. Take out, turn over one more time, and coat with the remainder of the herb paste. Finish cooking. Our drumsticks took 10 more minutes, and I threw in some brocollini into the pan in that final time.
Totally scrumptious. It tasted like lightly fried chicken. The skin was wonderfully crispy, and the interior, moist.
The only problem was that between the olive oil in the pan smoking (since 450 is pretty high heat for olive oil) and the remains of a butter spill from a Christmas cake smoking, I thought I was going to keel over from smoke inhalation. When I cook steak on our stove top, it's pretty normal for me to set off the fire alarm near the kitchen. This is the only time that I can think of when I also managed to set off the fire alarm in the bedroom! I'm glad I didn't kill our family or the bird.
If you make this, make sure your kitchen is well-ventilated. :)