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)
Various root vegetables, cut into bite-size pieces (e.g. potatos, carrots, parsnips, onion, celery)
4 cloves garlic, minced
butter/margarine/oil
2 tsp corn starch
1 cup chicken stock

Hardware: Two ovenproof skillets.

Preheat the oven to 230C. Put the skillets 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 dark meat, skin side down, in one skillet and the light meat in the other. Put some sort of lid onto the skillet with dark meat (e.g. pizza pans) and slide it into the oven, still at 230C. Bake for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, remove from oven, devide the veggies evenly across the two skillets and put BOTH back into the oven for another 15 minutes. After 15 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 a final 15 minutes.

OPTIONAL: When the chicken is done, pile the chicken on top of the veggies. 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.
Edit 2023: I made this without the thickning this time, and it really didn't need it - so I'll just do without as that makes it a lot easier anyways. The veggies got a tad too mushy, and the white meat was borderline dry, so I've adapted the recipe to hold off a bit on putting the light meat into the oven. I think these times will work - otherwise I'll adjust again. But REALLY good - even my DH approved.