Don't Try This At Home

So I am sure I am like most people.  I always want to put my best foot forward, and show the world what wonderful things I am trying to accomplish.  Well, this past evening I put my worst foot forward and my best foot was way in the back.  But with mishaps and experimentation, we can learn so much.  Blah, blah, blah.  Learn smearn!  I want to be perfect darn it!  Just joshing, kids.  I did learn during this process.  And Sister E had requested that I publish the good with the bad, so that she can learn along with me.  So while I describe what I did, I will tell you why I think it didn't work out as well as I wanted it to, and how I might have improved it.

I have been watching a lot of cooking shows with people roasting chicken breasts, legs and thighs, with the bone in and the skin on.  They say that both the bone and the skin add so much moistness and flavor.  Now I have roasted many chickens and turkeys in my day, and I love it like that.  But UD and I generally use boneless skinless chicken breasts, so I really wanted to give bone-in, skin-on a try. 

Hence, I decided to make a meal that consisted of bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts, with roasted potatoes, onions and asparagus. 

I sauteed garlic in EVOO and butter. 

I cut up both Vidalia onion and red onion.

I added cut up sweet potato and Idaho potatoes.  Two of each.

The fix would have been to have a much larger roasting pan, so the vegetables could be spread out and therefore cook more evenly.

I placed 4 bone-in, skin-on breasts over the potato and onion mixture.  I had seasoned it with salt, pepper and thyme.  Then I poured the garlic infused oil and butter over the whole thing.

Again, a too small roasting pan.

The chicken is supposed to come to 165 degrees, and that took about an hour and 15 minutes in a 350 degree oven.  I assumed that was plenty of time for the potatoes too.

Sweet potato cook a bit quicker than Idaho, so it would have been a good idea to par boil the Idaho before adding it to the roasting pan.

But for good measure, I placed the asparagus that had EVOO, kosher salt and fresh ground pepper, right on top of the potatoes, while the chicken rested.  I put them in the oven at 425 degrees for 8 minutes.  Removed it and turned the asparagus over and put them back in for another 8 minutes.  Still the asparagus were no where close to done.

I have roasted asparagus so many times it is ridiculous.  But it got away from me again.  Putting the asparagus on a sheet pan allows each piece to hit the hot sheet and cook more evenly and quickly.

The sweet potato and onions were absolutely perfect, but the Idaho potato and the asparagus were underdone.

We ate a chicken breast each, but neither of us liked having to deal with the skin or the bone.  And the meat was fine, but nothing we were going to pull out a pad and pencil to write home about.  If we had done boneless, skinless we would have been happier.  But I really do think it is a matter of preference. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day I made the best of a bad situation.  UD LOVES chicken salad.  Whenever we have leftover chicken, I hear -That would be great for chicken salad!  OK, UD.  Here you are. 

The thyme flavor on the chicken was actually very nice, and I figured it would work with the chicken salad as well.  So with the cut up chicken, I added chopped up cashews, Craisins, celery and Hellman's mayonnaise.  On the food network, whenever you hear a show host talking about using good mayo, you usually see a jar of Hellman's on the counter.

I didn't add onion, which I usually do, because I was using onion rolls for the sandwiches.  With a few Ruffle potato chips this was a good lunch the next day.  The problem of the left over chicken was solved.  The potatoes and asparagus will be reinvented in an upcoming meal, and I will be sure to blog it.

I guess it is true.  You learn something every day.

A bientot!  See you soon.