Crispy Rosemary Chicken and Oven Fries

While we love the idea of roasting a whole chicken and using every bit of it, quite frankly more often than not we don't get around to making stock from the carcass (or we do, but it gets shelved in the freezer for months at a time), and plus, good whole chickens are not exactly inexpensive. And now that we're actively trying to prevent having a surplus of things like chicken stock in the freezer before we move, the whole-chicken option was seeming less and less attractive.

Enter chicken thighs. At Whole Foods, we can get a dozen decent-quality, skin-on (and seriously, why would you want them any other way?) chicken thighs for under $7. Looking for a way to cook them, I came across this recipe, which is deceptively simple but amazingly delicious. Of course, we make substitutions--russet potatoes for the red, dried herbs for the fresh, and I leave out the garlic powder altogether, not to mention cooking it for 20 minutes at 475 instead of an hour at 375--but I'm grateful for the basic recipe, which turned us onto something so good we now have it a couple of times a week.

One of my favorite things about this recipe is how the chicken skin slides right off like a crispy, delicious little jacket that you can pop in your mouth as soon as the chicken hits the plate. MMMMMmmmm. One of the keys to really crispy skin, I've found, is rinsing the chicken and then patting it REALLY dry (most people use a paper towel, I use a clean kitchen towel). Seriously, where have these BEEN all my life? It literally breaks my heart to think of all the amazingly tasty chicken skin that must be wasted somewhere in the interested of satisfying the demand for boneless skinless shoe leather chicken breasts. And, I've had oven fries before and found them to be lackluster (as some of the commenters do on the above recipe), but I'm now convinced that that comes from a misguided attempt at trying to minimize the fat content. Liberally drizzled with olive oil, they're tender, flavorful, and delicious.

Here's the recipe, the way that I make it:

Crispy Rosemary Chicken and Oven Fries

6 chicken thighs, rinsed and patted very dry

4 small russet potatoes, sliced in half lengthwise and then into wedges

Olive oil as needed

Sprinkling of dried rosemary

Sprinkling of dried oregano

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F (190 degrees C).

Pour a little olive oil in the bottom of two 9x13 pans. Place the chicken thighs, skin side up, in one of them, and the potatoes spread out in the other. Drizzle both pans with olive oil and then sprinkle with the dried herbs, salt, and pepper. Cook approximately 20 minutes or until chicken is done and fries are cooked (cook longer for crispy fries).