Friday Chicken

Many weeks on Friday nights I order takeout, usually from the local thai place down the street. It's the one night I feel like I can "justify" it, as I have pad see ew with chicken and drink wine and watch trashy television.

Tonight I decided to do something different. I'm trying to cook more at home (can you tell?) so I wanted to try something new, perhaps something that could replace my usual Friday night indulgence. So it seemed appropriate to have this meal tonight. After all, I realized I had virtually no meat at all this week (how that happened I have no idea, but that's SO not happening again!) and the title of the dish, indeed "Friday Chicken", intrigued me. Plus, I can't ignore a recipe that sings such praises as the author claiming it too good not to share.



I marinated the chicken this morning and let it sit in the marinade, the spices, and the onions all day. Tonight, I threw it in the oven and as it cooked I did other things around the house. It smelled so good I almost pulled it out early to take a bite (don't worry, my fear of salmonella stopped me!). When it came out of the oven
it almost looked blackened, but not burnt. I was very excited to dig in.



Until my mouth absolutely caught fire.



This chicken was SO HOT. Not temperature wise, either. I had put pepper on both sides, and topped it with cayenne pepper, as the recipe suggested. Unfortunately, it made it unbelievably difficult to taste the chicken that was there, so next time I would halve the pepper asked for (and I'd recommend you do that too). When (if) I eat it for leftovers I plan to scrape most of the pepper off. I tried to cool my mouth down with the rice I had with it, the wine sitting next to me, and the thin mints I have hiding in the freezer, and I still taste a bunch of pepper in my mouth.

It is good chicken, I will admit, but leave the pepper alone.

I think next week I'll probably head back to my regular thai standby...

Friday Chicken (from Casserole Crazy: Hot Stuff for Your Oven, by Emily Farris)

Ingredients:

3 large chicken breasts
1/2 c. vegetable broth
1/2 c. balsamic vinegarette
1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil
1/4 c. soy sauce
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp pepper
2 cloves sliced fresh garlic
1/2 c. chopped green onions

Place the chicken baking dish and rub chicken with the salt and pepper.
Pour vinegarette, broth, olive oil and soy sauce over chicken breasts (I put them in separately, but if you want to mix together beforehand, feel free). Mix the chicken in the marinade.
Put cayenne pepper, garlic, and green onions on top of chicken
Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours
Bake uncovered at 400 for about 1 hour and 15 minutes or until done
For best results baste at least once while baking (which I forgot to do. This may alter the spiciness of the dish somewhat, perhaps).


Make sure you drink a tall glass of water before, during, and after this dish.