It’s humbling that approach each September, with out fail, knocks me on my rump. One week, you’re breezy and unscheduled, studying books on a seashore and tearing lobster aside along with your naked fingers (certainly, we have been in Maine) and the following you’re realizing a sure fetid backpack was by no means emptied on the final day of faculty in June, scrambling for after-school care, and even though I work each week of the yr, one way or the other there’s much more to do. If dinner can’t be made in a single pan by which every part cooks directly, I haven’t been making it. And but I’ve made this hen dish 4 occasions within the final month; it’s clearly time to shout about it throughout the web.
I hint this again to a newsletter from Clare de Boer final April (and in case you don’t subscribe, you must; it’s wonderful), by which she was on a mission to discover a sheet pan hen recipe that really had crispy pores and skin, and located it in a pan of hen thighs with lemon and onion. I, too, am a crispy hen pores and skin skeptic; it’s not that I don’t consider it will get crisp, however I discover it not often stays that approach as soon as it has rested or when different components be a part of the social gathering. However, curiosity bought the higher of me — curiosity, however not, uh, any form of adherence to the recipe as written as a result of see above: I want every part to be a meal-in-one-pan proper now. I added potatoes (as a result of potatoes with hen and lemon are glorious) and chickpeas (I’m actually much less clear on why, however it felt proper) to a baking dish (not sheet pan) and regardless of all of my modifications, was nonetheless totally delighted with the result.
The hen thighs are completely crisp on high and the lemon, onion, garlic, oregano, and olive oil beneath acquire the hen drippings and swirl it right into a scrumptious sauce that perfumes the potato wedges and chickpeas as they roast. Rind-on lemon slices, one thing I usually discover to be an unwelcome interruption in dishes, are unbelievable right here, mellowed by the oil and basic brothiness and sweetened by the onion. In a single spherical, I attempted to take away the chickpeas to simplify the dish and (I couldn’t make this up) acquired an irritated textual content from a young person: “Dad stated you’re making the hen with out the chickpeas — why? I like them.” Unwilling to cross a 15 year-old demanding legumes, they’ve stayed.
Podcast! A brand new episode of my podcast with J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, The Recipe with Kenji and Deb is out and I’m a bit of biased however I believe this is among the most enjoyable ones but, on the mighty BLT sandwich. You possibly can hearken to it wherever you get your podcasts and compensate for any episodes you’ve missed right here. New episodes drop each different Monday. I hope you take pleasure in listening as a lot as we’re having fun with the dialog.
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