Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Easy Garlic Broiled Chicken


This was by far one of the most frustrating recipes--I felt like the name of the recipe was somewhat misleading...that, or I'm just a bit "cooking-challenged"! I was so excited, because I saw the word "easy" and thought how perfect it would be for a quick weeknight meal! My husband and I decided that we would make it a point to sit down every Friday for dinner, as a family, since it's the ONLY night a week that we're all home around dinnertime. I had every intention of sitting down at 7pm, but we didn't end up eating until a little after 8pm! Granted, I did bathe the kids before dinner which stalled my starting dinner a bit, but it still felt like it took forever and a day for the chicken to finish cooking--it was *supposed* to be done in 20 minutes! I followed the recipe exactly as written, which may have been my first mistake--I generally tend to take the suggestions of other "reviewers", but it seemed as if enough people stated that they made it exactly as written and enjoyed it. I almost didn't even bother posting this recipe, because I was that frustrated, but I definitely think it has potential--that, and we had the leftovers last night and it tasted delicious reheated! I can count on one hand the amount of times I've used the broiler on my oven, so that might have been part of my problem. Perhaps I should have moved the rack up a bit, but I did take one person's suggestion and left it in the middle of my oven, since they said the chicken seemed to burn on the outside real quickly, while it was raw on the inside. I initially set my timer for 10 minutes, turned and basted the chicken and then set it for another 10 minutes and when I checked on it, it didn't appear to be anywhere near done and the skin wasn't at all browned. I moved the rack up and set it back in for 5 minutes, took it out and quickly realized it wasn't done as I was cutting it up for my kids. I put it back in and ended up going through this SEVERAL times until it was finally finished! Bless my kid's hearts...they sat so patiently, eating their broccoli and salad, even though it was already pushing 8pm, which is when they're normally heading to bed! Anyway, I'm going to post the recipe below and will be very anxious to know if anyone tries it and what changes you make! Since I did enjoy the leftovers so much (and my husband and son really liked the chicken the night I made it), I will give it one more try, but next time, I think I will let the chicken sit in the sauce (turning at least once) for an hour or two, prior to cooking and will then attempt to bake the chicken at 350 degrees for about 45-50 minutes and perhaps broiling the last couple of minutes. The recipe called for a fairly substantial amount of garlic (which we love) and the kitchen smelled wonderful while it was cooking, but I didn't feel as if the sauce/flavors had enough time to infuse into the chicken and I ended up broiling my chicken thighs for closer to 40 minutes. I used 10 bone-in chicken thighs (with skin) and one and a halfed the sauce ingredients, which gave PLENTY of sauce that would have been great spooned over noodles or rice. I really think this recipe has a lot of potential and the fact that it didn't cook as quickly very much could have been "user error". Feedback would be much appreciated from those of you who experiment with this recipe!!!

Easy Garlic Broiled Chicken

1/2 cup butter
3 tablespoons minced garlic
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon dried parsley
6 boneless chicken thighs, with skin
dried parsley, to taste

Directions:

Preheat the oven broiler. Lightly grease a baking pan.

In a microwave safe bowl, mix the butter, garlic, soy sauce, pepper, and parsley.

Cook 2 minutes on High in the microwave, or until butter is melted.

Arrange chicken on the baking pan, and coat with the butter mixture, reserving some of the mixture for basting.

Broil chicken 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until juices run clear, turning occasionally and basting with remaining butter mixture. Sprinkle with parsley to serve.

Source: Allrecipes.com

3 comments:

  1. I think you have the right idea about baking it and then broiling it to give it a crunch. I have a chicken recipe I ended up throwing out the back door because I got so mad an hour after the stated cooking time and it still wasn't done!

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  2. Like Heidi, I agree with baking the chicken and then finishing it off under the broiler. I do that when I make oven BBQ chicken. The only difference is that I set my oven at 400.

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  3. I really think this recipe is worth trying--especially now that I've gotten over my frustration! I definitely am going to opt to bake for the majority of time as opposed to broiling, though! Like I mentioned, it was delicious reheated and I think I would have enjoyed it much more the first time around, had I not gotten so discouraged. I'm very much a "planner" and was not a happy camper when my quick "20 minute meal" ended up taking WAY longer. After taking it out for the 2nd and 3rd time and finding out that it STILL wasn't done, I was at my wits end! Plus, it's frustrating when you time all of your "sides" to be done with your main dish--I had to reheat everything else I made :( Just to prove to myself that I can do it, I'm going to have to try this again in the next couple of weeks and I think I'll try baking it at 350-400 degrees for 40 min and then broil for 5 min. Keep your fingers crossed for me!!! ;)

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