Quick Roasted Chicken Quarters and More Rain

Long post..........

After those wonderful grilled steaks, Rachael Ray’s sliders, homemade pasta sauce with liberal chunks of fresh Italian sausage…it was time to punctuate the menu with chicken and/or fish…. Love beef. Love sausage. But I wanted a lighter theme. With a tighter budget this paycheck I rummaged in the fridge to see what we had on hand.

A package of chicken quarters. Great……because I instantly knew this would make a dinner and soup…..and if I’m lucky, I can get two dinners out of this one. Also on hand I found a few small onions, a large box of Old Bay , one of my favorite reliable olive oils (Bertolli extra virgin) and some lemons.



Here was a quick and inexpensive meal that just tosses together. No fussing, no basting.

Cut the quarters so you have legs and thigh meat separately. Drop into a big roasting pan.



Using a glass measuring cup I poured a quarter cup of olive oil. Next, using my Nigella citrus reamer, I squeezed fresh lemon juice into the oil, added salt and pepper, a tablespoon and bit more of Old Bay. Whisk it together.

While the oven is preheating to 375 convection bake mode, I took a chicken leg and immersed it in the Old Bay-lemon-oil mixture. Twirled it around until it was coated and dripping and then……I used this chicken leg to smear the mixture onto the other pieces. Drizzle any remaining oil over the chicken pieces.



Genius, or laziness, but that leg served as a spatula that I wouldn’t have to wash up. Ha. After dipping the leg and coating all pieces, chunk up some onions and shove into the pooling oil, as close up to a piece of chicken as you can get without placing the onion underneath the chicken.


That’s it…..a seriously easy inexpensive meal that doesn’t need looking after constantly. The onions will caramelize and become similar to chips. The chicken doesn’t need basting because of the soaking of olive oil. And the skin gets crisp and lovely browned colored.



This allows you time to attend to something else. Our something else this time are the shiba inus.



Now, since it’s STILL raining here, everyday, all day, no end in sight and my skin is looking like I am a swimmer…... This also means we can’t get girl dog out of the house. She is a princess. She doesn’t like to get her feet wet. She won’t walk, unless you make her if it’s too hot. Hot and wet – forget that too. Now, boy dog will soldier on in a downpour and do his business. So, the spoiled creatures were treated to a ride while the chicken was cooking. Drive toward a part of this county where the sky doesn’t look like a tornado is forming or isn’t black with ominous clouds.


Walk them around a park, grocery store, whatever….if you have a dog you’ll know – they are always way more inclined to cock a leg/squat if they are claiming the land as their own. Fine, check time…still have 45 minutes until the chicken needs to come out of the oven. Load the shibas back in the truck. Run into Publix for a gallon of milk and potatoes. Drive back toward the pouring rain, it’s getting harder the closer we get to Squirrel Head Manor.

Rush into the house. Dry the dogs off (pads are wet and they will now race insanely throughout the house, slamming wet paws across sofas and chairs as they bank off furniture, chasing each other down).

I have 17 minutes to get anything else ready. Start a package of Vigo yellow rice and realize it’s too late for any of the root vegetables to properly be prepared and cooked. I have a package of frozen broccoli and cheese sauce in the freezer. Mistake! Heat a loaf of French bread – never a mistake ;-)



So the meal was good overall with excellent marks for the Lemony Old Bay chicken and caramelized onion. The French bread – always excellent. Rice was a nice change from potatoes and later it went into the soup for next day’s lunch. The frozen vegetable. Horrible! I am so glad I made it because it was a fine example of why I always buy fresh and this is no substitution. Last minute or not – I will just put together a Caesar salad or suck on a carrot or something for the vegetable. This broccoli was full of tough stems. The cheese sauce was more of a chemical compilation of very orangey goo…a true disappointment.



And it’s still raining with now…a bonus of booming thunder. It’s turning into Squirrel Head Swamp with an 80% chance upcoming.

Pass the wine………..