The Easiest Cola-Marinated Chicken
I hear the same excuse all the time: "I don't have time to cook dinner at home!" or "I don't even know where to start unless I have a recipe!" I'm here to tell you friends, dinner doesn't have to take hours to prepare! And trust me, you don't need a recipe. This is the simplest chicken ever, yet it doesn't sacrifice any flavor. After you learn a few basic steps, you can use this method for roasting almost any meats and veggies in the oven. Throw this delicious chicken in the oven on a busy weeknight and you're good to go!
To start, I marinated a huge chicken leg (thigh and drumstick combined) in a large bowl with enough Pepsi to cover (you can use Coke, of course, if that's your thing), fresh basil, fresh thyme, salt, and pepper. Any cut of chicken would work well here. This marinade would also taste very nice with pork. I let it sit covered in the fridge for about two hours, but this could go as little as 30 minutes or up to as long as overnight.
Once your chicken has marinated, take out of the fridge and let come up to room temperature for about 15 minutes. Remove the chicken from the marinade and pat dry with paper towels very thoroughly. Don't skip this part or you'll end up with soggy, chewy chicken. Ew.
Line a shallow baking dish or sheet with foil and place a grate on top. I use the kind you cool cookies on, haha. This is to ensure that the chicken cooks evenly on the top and the bottom.
Rub the outside of the chicken heavily and thoroughly with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and any other mixture of dried herbs or spices that strike your fancy. I used a New Orleans style spice mix along with an Italian herb mix. Place your chicken on the grate and let rest while you prepare the veggies.
Next, I gathered all the vegetables in my fridge and pantry that needed to be used. I ended up with onion, garlic (I always have onion and garlic on hand), carrots, celery, mushrooms, and a bit of zucchini. Use whatever vegetables you like or have on hand. Broccoli? Awesome! Asparagus? Superb! Beets? Oh yes! Get wild n crazy with those veggies. This is what my stash looked like.
Chop up all your vegetables into similar sized pieces. Place them on a foil-lined baking sheet. (This allows for easier cleanup later...just throw the foil away and no need to scrub the baking sheet!) Drizzle the veggies with olive oil and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Don't be afraid of seasoning! Nothing tastes good unless it's seasoned properly.
Roast your chicken and vegetables for about 45 minutes in a 400 degree oven. When the 45 minutes is up, take out the vegetables. Flip your chicken over and turn your broiler on high for about 30 seconds to one minute. This gets the skin crispy on the under side of the chicken. Yummy!
Easy Peasy! By the way, this amount of chicken was enough to serve two, but I didn't cut it up for the photo for aesthetic purposes. :)
I served this up with some quinoa I cooked quickly on the stovetop while everything else was in the oven. You could use any other starch in it's place-- rice, potatoes, or even whole grain noodles. When the quinoa was about done, I just threw in some fresh chives and butter to finish.
To start, I marinated a huge chicken leg (thigh and drumstick combined) in a large bowl with enough Pepsi to cover (you can use Coke, of course, if that's your thing), fresh basil, fresh thyme, salt, and pepper. Any cut of chicken would work well here. This marinade would also taste very nice with pork. I let it sit covered in the fridge for about two hours, but this could go as little as 30 minutes or up to as long as overnight.
Once your chicken has marinated, take out of the fridge and let come up to room temperature for about 15 minutes. Remove the chicken from the marinade and pat dry with paper towels very thoroughly. Don't skip this part or you'll end up with soggy, chewy chicken. Ew.
Line a shallow baking dish or sheet with foil and place a grate on top. I use the kind you cool cookies on, haha. This is to ensure that the chicken cooks evenly on the top and the bottom.
Rub the outside of the chicken heavily and thoroughly with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and any other mixture of dried herbs or spices that strike your fancy. I used a New Orleans style spice mix along with an Italian herb mix. Place your chicken on the grate and let rest while you prepare the veggies.
Next, I gathered all the vegetables in my fridge and pantry that needed to be used. I ended up with onion, garlic (I always have onion and garlic on hand), carrots, celery, mushrooms, and a bit of zucchini. Use whatever vegetables you like or have on hand. Broccoli? Awesome! Asparagus? Superb! Beets? Oh yes! Get wild n crazy with those veggies. This is what my stash looked like.
Chop up all your vegetables into similar sized pieces. Place them on a foil-lined baking sheet. (This allows for easier cleanup later...just throw the foil away and no need to scrub the baking sheet!) Drizzle the veggies with olive oil and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Don't be afraid of seasoning! Nothing tastes good unless it's seasoned properly.
Roast your chicken and vegetables for about 45 minutes in a 400 degree oven. When the 45 minutes is up, take out the vegetables. Flip your chicken over and turn your broiler on high for about 30 seconds to one minute. This gets the skin crispy on the under side of the chicken. Yummy!
Easy Peasy! By the way, this amount of chicken was enough to serve two, but I didn't cut it up for the photo for aesthetic purposes. :)
I served this up with some quinoa I cooked quickly on the stovetop while everything else was in the oven. You could use any other starch in it's place-- rice, potatoes, or even whole grain noodles. When the quinoa was about done, I just threw in some fresh chives and butter to finish.
See? Cooking is a breeze-- now you have no excuse not to whip up this super easy, super flavorful dinner. Try it tonight, maybe?
xoxo
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