Today in Mississippi it's been stormy. My joints are not a fan. I, however, am! The boy went to work today and I have been dragging myself around the house all day trying to accomplish things. That has not gone well. Dishes, yeah. Laundry, yup. Made the bed, cleaned the bathroom. Still, not one of my projects on the almighty white board has been crossed off. Why? I haven't a clue!
Now about noon every day he calls to check in. Today's Topic O' Discussion was dinner. A few weeks ago Kroger had some awesome free range chicken on sale. Folks around here seem to like the extra large family packs and didn't quite realize that the price per pound of the really good free range stuff was LESS than the over-processed over-packaged force fed birds. So for a pack of 6 chicken drumsticks I paid about $2. I took them out of the freezer yesterday night and wasn't quite sure what to do with them until about lunch.
My brilliant idea was "shake n' bake". Of course by now you know I am not a fan of that prepackaged crap so I figured, Yeah, I can totally make my own. I started by rinsing the chicken and patting it dry with paper towels. Throw it in a bowl and add about a cup of milk and a good healthy amount of tabasco. I also added in a pinch of oregano from the garden and some Northwest Seasoning from Penzey's. Let it sit in the fridge for at least an hour but up to like 12 hours is fine.
In the mean time... maybe have a beer and then prep this next step.
Find a quart or gallon sized ziploc bag. Add in equal parts of flour (yes Jen, you can use GF easily for this!) and corn meal (not sure if that's GF, if not just double the flour), add in like a good tablespoon of Northwest Seasoning. If you don't have that, just kind of mix together some pepper, paprika, salt, black pepper, and cumin. You could also do a season salt of some kind. Basically whatever you wanna eat, ok?! Geez, you guys are picky!
Shake that mixture up pretty well. Pick the chicken up from the milk and shake it a little over the bowl to get the heavy liquid off. Then put the piece in the bag and shake until it's covered. I like to do them individual for a nice even coating and no lumpy bits.
Place the chicken in a glass baking dish, make sure the pieces aren't touching. Now add in about 2 tbsp of butter and 2 tbsp of lard. Yeah, I get that most folks these days aren't into "fat" but if you're gonna make this right, kick your conscious in the ass and go get some lard. TRUST ME!
Now bake for 30 min at 350. After 30 min, jack the heat to 450, flip the chicken over and bake another 15-20 min until golden. And for the love of all that is food like, please use SKIN ON BONE IN chicken. You can be prissy and peel skin off later but for now, leave it on. Skin and Bones are where the flavor comes from.
It will come out all sorts of yummy and taste sort of friend but has like WAY less unhealthy junk. Plus c'mon. The total cost for the whole dish for me was like $2.50.
I also made some mashed taters. This is my one exception to the boxed food rule other than cereal. I love Idahoan potatoes. The box lists the ingredients as potato. That's it, just dehydrated potato. Yum! Boil some water, add in a hunk of butter and some garlic salt. Mix in the potatoes. For like $0.45 and 5 minutes you can have delicious potatoes. I love to add milk and sour creme sometimes too. Depends on how far you want to take this one.
Some steamed green beans done in the microwave and it was cheap, simple, and surprisingly healthy. Did I mention it was damn good? Yup!
I'd have taken a picture but we ate it too quick. Sorry!!!
Now about noon every day he calls to check in. Today's Topic O' Discussion was dinner. A few weeks ago Kroger had some awesome free range chicken on sale. Folks around here seem to like the extra large family packs and didn't quite realize that the price per pound of the really good free range stuff was LESS than the over-processed over-packaged force fed birds. So for a pack of 6 chicken drumsticks I paid about $2. I took them out of the freezer yesterday night and wasn't quite sure what to do with them until about lunch.
My brilliant idea was "shake n' bake". Of course by now you know I am not a fan of that prepackaged crap so I figured, Yeah, I can totally make my own. I started by rinsing the chicken and patting it dry with paper towels. Throw it in a bowl and add about a cup of milk and a good healthy amount of tabasco. I also added in a pinch of oregano from the garden and some Northwest Seasoning from Penzey's. Let it sit in the fridge for at least an hour but up to like 12 hours is fine.
In the mean time... maybe have a beer and then prep this next step.
Find a quart or gallon sized ziploc bag. Add in equal parts of flour (yes Jen, you can use GF easily for this!) and corn meal (not sure if that's GF, if not just double the flour), add in like a good tablespoon of Northwest Seasoning. If you don't have that, just kind of mix together some pepper, paprika, salt, black pepper, and cumin. You could also do a season salt of some kind. Basically whatever you wanna eat, ok?! Geez, you guys are picky!
Shake that mixture up pretty well. Pick the chicken up from the milk and shake it a little over the bowl to get the heavy liquid off. Then put the piece in the bag and shake until it's covered. I like to do them individual for a nice even coating and no lumpy bits.
Place the chicken in a glass baking dish, make sure the pieces aren't touching. Now add in about 2 tbsp of butter and 2 tbsp of lard. Yeah, I get that most folks these days aren't into "fat" but if you're gonna make this right, kick your conscious in the ass and go get some lard. TRUST ME!
Now bake for 30 min at 350. After 30 min, jack the heat to 450, flip the chicken over and bake another 15-20 min until golden. And for the love of all that is food like, please use SKIN ON BONE IN chicken. You can be prissy and peel skin off later but for now, leave it on. Skin and Bones are where the flavor comes from.
It will come out all sorts of yummy and taste sort of friend but has like WAY less unhealthy junk. Plus c'mon. The total cost for the whole dish for me was like $2.50.
I also made some mashed taters. This is my one exception to the boxed food rule other than cereal. I love Idahoan potatoes. The box lists the ingredients as potato. That's it, just dehydrated potato. Yum! Boil some water, add in a hunk of butter and some garlic salt. Mix in the potatoes. For like $0.45 and 5 minutes you can have delicious potatoes. I love to add milk and sour creme sometimes too. Depends on how far you want to take this one.
Some steamed green beans done in the microwave and it was cheap, simple, and surprisingly healthy. Did I mention it was damn good? Yup!
I'd have taken a picture but we ate it too quick. Sorry!!!
Sounds great and I may try that sometime, good post.
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