brainwagon

I love Good Eats, and am a big fan of Alton Brown. His no-nonsense pragmatism has vastly improved my skills at preparing steaks, chicken broth and cheesecake. In honor of his brief mention in Wired, I’ve added his weblog to my list of Celebrity Blogs. Thanks Alton!

To pad this entry out, let me recommend one technique which has turned chicken breasts into something that you might actually want to eat. Alton described his broiled, butterflied chicken in his episode A Bird in the Pan. I’m sure it’s great, but I don’t buy whole chickens very often. The basic idea works very well with just ordinary chicken parts. I’ve used breasts (both bone in and boneless) and parts like thighs and wings, and they all come out tasting yummy.

The basic idea is to roast them over a bed of carrots, onions and celery. I often use veggies that are a little past their prime: it simply doesn’t matter since you are using them for their aroma, not for eating. I chop up one or two onions, a couple of carrots and a couple of sticks of celery. I then scatter them over the bottom of a roaster pan (I use my nonstick one for this) and just plop chicken parts over the top for roasting. I like my food spicy, so I hit them with a tiny bit of oil, and then dredge them in my favorite spice mix (I’ve got a big bucket of cajun style spice that gets used a lot for this). I then roast it in the oven at 400 degrees for about 35 minutes for the boneless breasts, about 45 minutes for the bone in ones (use your electronic thermometer to check for doneness if you are unsure). Yank the chicken out, let it rest for five to ten minutes tented with foil, then enjoy it with some cool side dish like coleslaw or potato salad. The aroma of the vegetables will permeate the chicken make it very flavorful. Yum-my.