Week 42: Skillet Chicken

The Recipe
4-5 pieces of chicken (I used 3 drumsticks and 2 breast fillets - dark meat for me, white meat for DH)
3 carrots, cut into bite sized pieces
5 small potatoes, cut into bite sized pieces
1 onion, cut into 8 wedges
1 stalk celery, cut into chunks (I don't like celery, so I used a handful of mushrooms instead)
4 cloves garlic, minced
butter/margarine/oil
2 tsp corn starch
1 cup chicken stock

Hardware: One large ovenproof skillet or two smaller ones (I used 2 smaller ones).

Preheat the oven to 230C. Put the skillet(s) in the oven to preheat too. When the oven is heated and the skillets are hot, do the following:
Remove the skillets from the oven and add a goodly amount of margarine/butter/oil to each. Add minced garlic to each skillet and stir it around in the butter. Put the chicken, skin side down, in one skillet and the veggies in the other. (Note: I think it might be even better to have a mix of chicken and veggies in each)
Put some sort of lid onto the skillet(s) (e.g. pizza pans) and slide them into the oven, still at 230C. Bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, stir the veggies and turn the chicken. Preheating the skillet means that the skin should be golden brown and delicious-looking. Leave the lids off and slide the skillets back into the oven for another 15 minutes.

When the chicken is done, pile the chicken on top of the veggies (doing it in 2 skillets really works because of this step). Combine cornstarch with chicken stock. Put the skillet that held the chicken over high heat. Add the cornstarch/stock. Stir it well, and almost constantly, to get all the good brown bits and garlic off the pan. When the sauce is thickened to your liking, pour it over the chicken and veggies.

The Verdict
I never can get thickening to work, and this was no exception. Ah well, despite the very liquid sauce it was still ABSOLUTELY delicious! Definitely something I'll be making again. I don't make oven-baked chicken much as it tends to dry out on me, but this turned out all kinds of yummy (of course the white meat might have been dry... after all, I didn't try that). Really, you can use any kind of veggies for this - parsnips or pumpkin would go nicely with it too.