Easy Roasted Chicken Legs with Olives Recipe

There is no question of whether or not Fall has graced Seattle with her glorious autumn presence.  The leaves of Japanese maple trees once full of lush dark tones of amber, deep saturated yellows, and various shades of green are changing with the addition of bright copper red edging and golden warm tones.  Last night I embrace the seasonal change with a comforting meal of roasted chicken and polenta using recipes from blogger Pour Girl Gourmet – Amy McCoy’s new cookbook,  Poor Girl Gourmet: Eat in Style on a Bare-Bones Budget.  Her recipe for roasted chicken legs with olives was a beautiful reminder how simplicity can not be underestimated and outdated.

The aroma of oven roasted chicken lingered throughout the house signaling to our family dinner was almost ready.  Seasoned with kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, and fresh thyme. the chicken itself only reaffirmed what I often evangelize here – salt and pepper is all you ever really need to season food to be good and wholesome.  And wholesome our meal was.  The addition of Castelvetrano olives was a thoughtful addition to the chicken legs.  This was the first time ever trying this variety of olives and I can honestly tell they were delightfully good.  It is unlike any olives I have tried before.  The only way to describe them would be “buttery”.  Needless to say we ate very well last night.  Even better, this chicken dish took very little time to prepare and was a wonderful way to embrace Fall.  By the way, don’t even get me started about the roasted olives… swoon.

Later this week I will be sharing a more insightful review of Amy’s new cookbook with a chance for three readers to win a copy!  But for now I gladly share with you her recipe for roasted chicken.  Enjoy!

Reprinted exactly as written with permission from Amy McCoy& Andrews McMeel Publishing

Roasted Chicken Legs with Olives

{Easily serves 4 – costs $5-$10)

Ingredients:

4 chicken legs (approximately 3/4 pound each)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon dried thyme, or 1 tablespoon fresh

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1/4 pound good-quality olives, such as Kalamata or Castelvetrano, unpitted

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F,

2. In a large baking dish or lasagna pan, arrange the chicken legs in a single layer, skin side up.  Using a basting brush or your hands – your hands are the best tools you have, remember – lightly coat the skin with the olive oil. Sprinkle the legs with thyme, and season them with salt and pepper.

3.  Scatter the olives around the chicken such that they have their own space in which to live.  It is okay if a few olives reside in the fold of a leg, but you do want to try to get the majority of them onto their own space in the baking dish so they are marinated with the chicken fat as they cook.

4.  Roast the chicken until the skin is crispy and juices run clear when the legs are pierced, 55 minutes to 1 hour.  Serve each leg forth with one-quarter of the olives per person, even to the olive haters, for they need to taste and then find themselves transformed to olive lovers, or at least roasted olive lovers.  Be certain to remind your dinner companions that olives are not pitted so that no one loses a tooth.  That’s no way to start a meal, or inspire a love of roasted olives.

**Each of Amy’s recipe in the book also come with an estimated cost to prepare the dish.  Here are her sidebar notes**

The chicken legs should cost no more than $1.49 per pound.  Rounding up, we’ll call it $4.50 for the 4 legs.  At $6.99 per pound, 1/4 pound of olives will cost roughly $1.75.  The olive oil will cost us $.24, and the thyme approximately $.18.  If you do not have a good Italian or specialty deli in your area, jarred olives (with pits) are fine to use.  In that case, you will use approximately half of the jar, and at $3.59 per jar, that’s an increase in price of approximately $.30.