I’ve mentioned plenty of times that the right ingredients are everything to good cooking. I love a good rub on my meat to start things off, and so I started my chicken leg quarters (thigh and drumstick) with just that.
Charcrust makes several dry rub blends, I’ve tried a few and have never been disappointed. They definitely make your meat extra juicy!! I used the garlic and peppercorn blend and lightly coated the chicken. Then I heated up a little EVOO to sear it on the stove first.
Get a good “charcrust” on the skin side and then put into a baking dish. I chopped up some fennel and carrots to bake with the chicken. I laid down the veggies in the baking dish together with a nice pour of apple cider, just covering the veggies, to steam everything in. I set the chicken on top of the veg to keep the top crispy.
Covered with foil and baked at 375 for about 25 minutes, then opened the foil and let it bake another 20 or so til the chicken was done (juices run clear and meat pulls easily from the bone). How simple is that??
I made some pearled cous cous as a base. Found it at Whole Foods recently and I had never seen it before, but it’s like if cous cous and pasta had a baby. It’s quite good. Reminds me of pastina, a baby food type of pasta (tiny little pasta stars) that my mom made for us when we were little and I absolutely adore it! Got it all plated up and there ya go!
The chicken was oh so juicy!! A good dish to try on a chilly night – one of those soul warming dishes reminiscent of chicken soup!
Eat, Drink, and Go! 