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
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.
I am going to try this tonight, have all the ing. Sounds good and I always love to try different chicken recipes..thank you for posting them
A little over an hour ago I sat down to a meal of roasted chicken leg quarters and popped over here and lookie there! My husband even said while we were eating them, this is really inexpensive eating at it’s best. Yummy, simple, and inexpensive too? Can’t beat that.
Margaret: I like your theory!
I’m thinking that if you used pitted olives they would shrink and collapse in the cooking process. The pit would hold the meat of the olive so it could soak up the chicken juices.
Chicken and olives…I’m in love! This looks amazing!
This chicken looks so juicy and delicious. I never would have thought of pairing olives with the chicken, even though I love both. Fantastic photographs too!
This looks so simple and full of flavour. I keep meaning to make chicken with olives but for the life of me keeo forgetting. Good thing that i have all the ingrediants! Looks YummY!
Alice, thank you so much for this wonderful post and the STUNNING photographs. I’m so glad you liked the chicken legs with olives – and the Castelvetranos really are amazing!
Seven, the dish was inspired by a dish of duck legs and olives that my husband and I had in Italy. The olives in that duck leg dish were roasted with the pits intact, which does make it a little more work for the diner, however, please feel free to pit the olives to roast them – whatever works best for you! Enjoy!
As a mom, wife, and now blogger, I’m always looking for quick and easy dinner recipes, and this looks perfect. and delicious!
i don’t even care that my hubby doesn’t like olives…this is for dinner this weekend!
I’m not even a big fan of olives, and this looks amazing to me!!
I would hang that picture of olives on my wall. Looks great!
Awesome preparation. Love that the technique is simple but you can see that the flavor is delicious.
That looks absolutely delicious! (Gorgeous photo too!)
Those olives are so pretty! This sounds like a very comforting recipe for fall. Plus, it has a good dose of salt from the olives – makes my taste buds sing!
Fab-freaking-tastic! My two mortal loves collide! Thanks for putting the ingredients cost as well – more motivation to scrounge up some change and head to the grocery store!
Swoon! I absolutely LOVE my PGG cookbook and you’ve given me incentive to try this chicken recipe. We already love the polenta!
Another winner (aren’t they all!) is the pork. Perfect fall fare.
Hi Seven,
I’m not sure why either. However, last night I did try to pit them and the pits in these olives would not come out with my pitter. If you have an olive pitter, by all means pit away!
Looks great and I hope to try it soon, but I’m curious: why not pitted olives?
That looks so simple and delicious. Thanks for the recipe!
This looks delicious! I’ve never roasted olives before, but sounds like they’d complement the chicken wonderfully.