Food Friday (BBQ Chicken and Roasted Carrots)

Friday, July 9, 2010

Hey y’all, it’s Kathy here…it has been a while, hope you haven’t forgotten me!  I have 3 kids with birthdays all within 6 weeks of each other, so I have been in full swing party planning mode!  We’ve gotten 2 down, and the third, my little munchkin’s FIRST birthday bash, is on Sunday…praying for sunshine, so that we don’t have to cram 60 people into our house!

So, needless to say, simple is my BFF lately.  Simple means stress free…but simple can still taste good…and be healthy, yay for that!  Today I’m bringing you two original recipes, the first for roasted carrots, and the second for a COATING that we use for BBQ’d (yes, you read that right) chicken thighs.  I had never heard of BBQ-ing a breaded chicken before, but let me tell you, it is TO DIE FOR (thanks to our buddy Tim for the amazing recipe)!  There really isn’t much of the actual breading that stays on the chicken, but it’s just enough to make them heavenly, while still healthy…did I say that already?  But let’s just start with those carrots, shall we?

I was looking for a different way to serve carrots than the same old steamed carrots with maple syrup, or butter and parsley that I always used to make, I was sick of them, really.  I had seen Ina Garten roast root vegetables years ago (when I could actually sit and watch Food TV without interruptions) and the way she rough cut her carrots had stuck in my mind.  So, I went to chopping…cutting the carrots on a 45 degree angle, then turning them a quarter turn, and chopping again.  Cutting them this way allows for more surface area for roasting.

Next, I tossed them into my Pampered Chef bar pan stoneware (LOVE PC stoneware, BTW) and drizzled a little Extra Virgin Olive Oil on them.  I added some coarse sea salt, freshly ground pepper and thought…hhhmmmm…I wonder how the Pampered Chef Rosemary Herb Seasoning Mix would be on them?!?  So, I sprinkled a little on, and popped them in the oven to roast away.

Oh my goodness, they were roasted to perfection and the flavor was out of this world…bye bye boring carrots…hello yum!  And they are so pretty…aren’t they?  They have become a staple at our house, and everyone that has eaten them asks for the recipe…but there isn’t a “recipe”…really, it’s so easy!

I do have a recipe for the Chicken Coating, but it’s really easy too, my kind of meal.  First, you want to start out with some boneless, skinless chicken thighs (I don’t typically like ANY dark meat, but these are soooo moist and flavorful).  We buy the club pack at Costco, half a pack will feed our family for one meal, and usually my hubby’s lunch the next day.  If we have company, we use the whole pack.  The great thing is, it is just as tasty reheated…and that is saying a lot coming from me who doesn’t like reheated meat…I know, I’m weird. 

Place the chicken thighs in a large bowl and drizzle enough olive oil to coat the chicken, but not so much that they’re swimming in it!!  Pour some of the chicken coating into the bowl and toss around with some tongs.  It is trial and error the first time you make it, as I can’t give you an exact ratio of chicken thighs to olive oil to coating mixture.  The great thing about it is that if you start small, you can add enough of each back and forth until it looks right.  You don’t want the coating to look caked on, just sparsely coated, as you can see in the picture below. 

Lastly, cook on medium heat until the chicken thighs are done.  The great thing about using the thighs is that they don’t dry out and they are so flavorful…yum yum!  We eat the chicken and carrots with some jasmine rice, and a salad…a really easy summer meal.

And, if you like these recipes, please feel free to download these premade 4×6 recipe cards.  Just print and add to your recipe box!

I hope you’ll make these recipes and let me know what you think.  Bon Appetite!

KathyFood Stuff, Free (not desktops), Uncategorized 18 Comments