Making it easy on yourself: mustard butter chicken

And so we return to chicken, ragazzi.  And why?  Well, we like it.  And let's face it:  we could eat it every single day .  Indeed, Annalena believes that some people do.  You will find so many recipes with chicken in them:  a simple check of "epicurious," one of the "go to" sites for recipes,  found 3,887 recipes  This is actually fewer than Annalena thought.    So, in order to choose which one, of the thousands there are to make, you have to think about what you like, what your time commitment is, etc, etc, etc.

This is one which Annalena found most pleasing.  Again, it derives from the NY Times, and it's a winner.  It is definitely a five star recipe, on a five point scale.

And why five points?  Well, Annalena was cooking last Monday, and she was NOT cooking dinner for that night.  Rather, she was preparing a meal for Wednesday night,  with the usual chicken ready for roasting sitting there, to go into the oven an hour before the Guyman came back from rehearsal.

Then, the phone call came:  the Guyman would be late at work, and he would not be going to rehearsal.  Well, so what does one do?  Granted, Annalena COULD have stuck with the plan and roasted the chicken, OR she could have served the veal she had just made.  But serving the veal would have meant chicken twice that week, on successive nights.  This  bothered her sense of adventure.   She still can't figure out why she didn't just roast the chicken, but she didn't.   So she made this recipe ahead of its scheduled time.

It is easy, ragazzi, SO easy.  Here's what you need to do.  First, you need three pounds of chicken legs. That is probably four whole legs.  Go with the whole legs.   Before you go and buy them, check to see if you have dijon mustard, unsalted butter,  whole grain mustard, garlic, fresh thyme  bread crumbs (unflavored), and olive oil.  You'll probably have most of those items around:  you may only need to shop for whole grain mustard.  And here we go.  Preheat your oven, to 425.  Then, pat your chicken legs dry and sprinkle them with salt and pepper.  Put them aside while you prep the rest of the ingredients.

If you have had the chance, before you started any of this, you will have put a tablespoon of unsalted butter in a bowl to soften.  If you haven't, what happens next will be harder, but you can do it.  To the butter, add a quarter cup of whole grain mustard,  2 minced garlic cloves,   2 teaspoons (oh, heck, use a tablespoon), of chopped thyme leaves, and two teaspoons (oh, heck, use a tablespoon), of dijon mustard.    Mash this all together.  Use a fork, or use your fingers, whatever is most convenient for you.

Use this mix and rub it all over the chicken legs. You'll have enough.  Annalena promises.  When you've coated the legs with the butter mixture,  pour out breadcrumbs on  a flat surface, and roll the chicken legs to cover.  Then, put them onto a baking sheet, and drizzle a bit of olive oil over them.

Did that seem hard?  It's not.  Roast them for 35-40 minutes and you know what?  Dinner's ready.  Yes, it is.  And there is enough room on the baking sheet, and the temperatuare is right, so that if you wanted to make baked potatoes, or baked sweet potatoes, etc, you could put them on the sheet as well, and have them both ready at the same time.

Now, to steal one of Ms. Garten's titles, "how easy is that?"  It's very easy.  Go for it, ragazzi.