Crispy Baked Chicken

Crispy Baked Chicken was a recipe we had to make! It was delicious and looked beautiful. We Roasted Potatoes with it. For a vegetable we sautéed Snap Peas. It was a delicious dinner with lots of leftovers! We had read that Whole Foods has the best Ice Cream Sandwich. I popped over and bought a box. We shared one for dessert. I was immediately transported back to my youth. The Whole Foods Ice Cream Sandwich tasted exactly as I remembered it! 

Crispy Baked Chicken

New York Times

 

For pull-apart tender chicken with crisp, deeply spiced skin, rub it with a spicy-sweet mix and roast it low and slow while you’re doing something else. Because this chicken is cooked at a moderately low temperature, the spices will bloom but not burn, and the chicken fat will render slowly and completely (which means you don’t need any oil). The smoky rub in this recipe will turn the chicken skin into what tastes like a barbecue potato chip, but you can use other spice blends, too, like garam masala or Montreal steak seasoning. Just be sure your mix includes sugar for browning and salt for accentuating flavors. Whole chicken legs (with the thigh and drumstick attached) provide a more generous portion of juicy meat and skin that shatters, but a mix of drumsticks and bone-in thighs work, too.

 

INGREDIENTS

Yield:4 servings

 

4       teaspoons dark brown sugar

2       teaspoons smoked paprika

1½    teaspoons kosher salt (Diamond Crystal)

½      teaspoon black pepper

A heaping ¼ teaspoon ground cayenne

4       chicken leg quarters (2½ to 3 pounds), patted dry

 

PREPARATION

 

1.            Heat the oven to 325 degrees. In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar, paprika, salt, black pepper and cayenne with a fork or your fingers. Rub the spice mix all over the chicken. (You can do this step 1 to 12 hours ahead. Refrigerate uncovered, then bring to room temperature before cooking.)

2.            Place the chicken on a parchment-lined baking sheet, skin side up. Bake, without flipping, until the chicken is cooked through and the skin is crisp, 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes. Eat the chicken with pan drippings spooned over top.