BBQ Chicken Thighs

Hello again everybody! Sorry it's been so long since I posted! I have no excuse other than the business of life which is really not a good excuse!

Today's recipe is BBQ Chicken Thighs!

Random fact about me: I hate BBQ sauce... Unless it's cooked... Then I LOVE it! :o) Something magical happens when it's cooked!

Random fact about my sister: She likes to dip her bananas in BBQ sauce... Oddness runs in the family!

All you need:

 boneless chicken thighs (enough to feed whoever you're feeding)

garlic (as many cloves as you like... I used 2)

olive oil (optional)

BBQ sauce (whatever kind you like... I used a Kansas City kind this time and liked it a lot, but I don't like sweet BBQ sauce at all and a lot of people do, so whatever BBQ sauce you would usually use will be perfect!)

Start by heating up your pan over medium heat and adding the olive oil (or just heat up your pan). Press the garlic into the pan and stir until you can smell it.

Add your chicken thighs. They should sizzle. If they don't, your pan's not hot enough which is fine, just be more patient next time. :o)

Brown the chicken on all sides. It doesn't need to be cooked through now, just browned.

Once browned, turn heat to low, cover, and let cook for 20 minutes.

After that, add your BBQ sauce. It will be watery and look kinda nasty to be honest but don't worry... It will change into a nice thick sauce.

Keep turning and basting the chicken with the BBQ sauce until it reaches the thickness you want. I usually cook it until my mashed potatoes and veggie are done, about 20-30 minutes.

YUM! Excuse my poor choice of veggie as far as pretty pictures go... I know you're not supposed to have that much white on the plate... But it was yummy!

This Kitchen Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us

I apologize for the lack of posts last week. It was a rough week, but I still dropped the ball and I hope to do better in the future! I hope this post at least makes up for it a little... I think it's going to be a long one!

You all know I hate raw chicken. I can't stand touching it or really even looking at it. But since my grandma gave me a roasting rack and roast chicken was on sale at the grocery store last week, I knew the time had come to face my fear.

So I did. I bought a roasting chicken. And I was starting to get kind of excited... Being able to roast a chicken is like a coming of age, right? I would take the giblets out of the inside and boil them in water with some spices and have chicken stock and my roast chicken would come out beautifully with tons of juice to make gravy with and we would have all sorts of leftover chicken to make all those yummy meals that call for already cooked chicken and then I could make soup out of the bones... It was going to be beautiful...

How's that for a defensive stance? It looks like it wants to fight. Well fight we shall.

The problems started when I took the giblets out of the inside of the chicken. When I roasted a turkey for Thanksgiving a few years back (Yes, I've roasted a turkey but not a chicken... And yes, to me there is a huge difference.) there were like three livers and two necks and who knows what else in the bag. There were only two little pieces of I don't know what part in THIS bag. Not enough to do anything with. Bah. Oh well, at least I'll have chicken. I muttered to myself about not being surprised since it was a sale chicken from Giant Eagle and they probably kept most of that stuff and sold it separately for an exorbitant price to make up for the sale.

Then I looked more closely and realized that the neck was still attached.

So I swallowed the panic that was rising in my throat and did what any sensible grown woman would do in a moment of kitchen crisis. I called my grandma.

Hello, grandma, I'm getting ready to roast my chicken and it appears that the neck is still attached. Is that normal?

Yes, just cut around it and snap it off.

...

...

You're joking right?

No, and don't forget to squeeze the gooby purple stuff out of those little crevices I told you about on the inside. I think those are the lungs and the chicken will taste funny if you leave them in.

*whimper*

This is my neckless chicken. I think I also broke its back. And yes that is the torture tool I used. It looks much less menacing and much more defeated now don't you think?

So that trauma over, I rinsed all the nastiness I could out of the middle and proceeded to pat it dry with paper towels both inside and out. Then I sprinkled the inside with salt. I meant to put some onion and garlic inside the chicken before I tied it up, but I forgot. Bummer.

Once the chicken's legs were tied to its tail and its wings were tucked under, I was beginning to feel much better. I placed it on the roasting rack, coated it with olive oil, and sprinkled some parsley, oregano, and basil on top. Go easy on the basil, it tends to be strong.

I then roasted my chicken for 1 hour and 45 minutes at 375 degrees. It was done a good hour before my hubby was due to be home... Oops...

Now, I may be biased, but I thought it looked fantastic. But there was almost no juice for gravy. Boo. There went dream number two. I made some roasted potatoes and carrots and made gravy out of the pork stock I had made a while ago while I waited for my hubby to come home.

And then we ate the entire thing. There wasn't nearly as much meat as I had imagined. There goes dream number three. It was pretty moist, but it didn't have much flavor. I think the onions and garlic that I forgot would have helped. And I did save the bones for soup... That dream remains yet to be...

My adventure being over I washed the mountain of dishes that goes with roast chicken and decided that I could do that again. I would still rather roast a chicken every day than cut up raw chicken breasts once a week... Ew...

Beans and Cornbread

So simple... So inexpensive... So filling...

and SO YUMMY!!!

I made beans and cornbread (NOT corn cake... NO sugar in this recipe!) for dinner tonight because my hubby's been wanting them and I had a ham bone to use from Easter. I was going to show you how step by step, but that's already been done so well elsewhere that I'm just going to direct you there... Call it cheating if you want to! :O)

Beans and Cornbread Recipe

Of course, as we all know, I can't follow a recipe. So here's what I did differently:

I used black eyed peas instead of pinto beans because it's what I had on hand.

I soaked the beans overnight in a pot of water after rinsing them (makes them less gassy)

I would suggest less pepper than she puts in, but that's just me.

I used a ham bone instead of bacon.

I added two bay leaves while the beans were cooking.

And for the cornbread I used butter instead of shortening.

(I also used the milk and vinegar trick instead of buttermilk... 1 Tablespoon vinegar + enough milk to make it a cup = 1 cup of buttermilk)

Other than that... Do what she says! :o)

This is the best cornbread I have ever had... And I love beans...

Try it... You'll like it! :o)