Random Willy-Nillyness Cooking Presents: Mediterranean Chicken

Yes, my dears, it's Sabroso Saturday. My recipe today is something I came up with after watching Alexandra Guarnaschelli on the Today show. Alexandra is, of course, a Food Network star and you all know I am a Food Network Junkie.

She was making a recipe with flank steak. The marinade looked really good because she added feta cheese to it. I figured I could make something like that. I had some chicken thighs in the house and some of the same ingredients she used. So I said what the heck, let's give it a go.

Of course, there is no recipe just a hodge podge of ingredients, I threw together. I call it Mediterranean Chicken because I used the flavor profile from that area. I took 3 large lemons, dried oregano and olive oil and mixed them together. Three lemons make a lot of juice so you have to put at least as much olive oil as lemon juice in the marinade to compensate for the tartness of the lemon. There is a formula or recipe to the amounts you should use but I was too lazy to actually look it up on the internets. I ended up using dried oregano because I forgot I had fresh oregano in the garden. DOH! I would have added some dried rosemary but I had none in my spice cabinet.

I cannot believe I didn't have rosemary because there are always herbs and spices that everyone who cooks must have in the spice cabinet. Among them, rosemary. But alas, I ran out and never replaced it. Anyway, instead of the rosemary, I found some saffron and decided that might add a little extra flavor. Now if you don't know what saffron is or ever used it, it is like gold. The little bit I had cost me $26 dollars. Of course, it lasts forever because you only use a few threads of the saffron in any dish. If you use a lot, it will overwhelm the dish.
And while saffron is super duper pricey, I actually have tons of saffron in my house because when I was in Costa Rica, I found Spanish saffron in the grocery store for pennies on the dollar. I couldn't believe how much cheaper it was in Costa Rica. I snatched up a boatload, stuffed it on my suitcase and brought it back here. I am set for life on saffron. And if I ever need more, I am so telling my mom or sister to send me some from Costa Rica because it is so wickedly expensive!

Okay, I am off topic, sorry. Anyway, to the marinade, I added the saffron (a few threads) and salt and pepper to taste. You HAVE to taste the marinade before you put it on the chicken to make sure it tastes good. You can add salt, pepper etc. if it needs it. Lastly, I added finely crumbled Feta cheese because that is what Alex did. I mixed it well and it tasted really good.

I used to marinade my meats in a baking dish or bowl but now I only marinade in Ziploc bags. It is the best thing to do because it actually gets all over the meat instead without having to use tons of marinade. If you push out all the air it will seal in the taste. The other reason to marinade in this manner is the clean up will be easy peasy lemon squeezy! You take out the meat and throw out the bag. Sure, it's not that green but it will save you time and cleaning!

That's it. Now you can grill the chicken but I decided to bake it since our grill is wonky and it burnt my pork ribs into charred pieces of meat the other day. BOO! I baked it at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Of course, you need to make sure the chicken is well cooked. I have an obsession about cooked chicken because I got salmonella poisoning one time and it was the most horrific thing! So I am paranoid about raw poultry and refuse to eat any poultry that is not totally cooked!!

For the meal, I decided to serve this with some couscous that I added fresh tomatoes, lemon juice, lemon zest and shallots. Along with that I pulled out the Barefoot Contessa's Argula, Feta and Watermelon salad. I have to say that we LOVE this salad. I figured that I better make as much as I can before I can't find watermelon anymore. Let's just say, dinner was delicious.

Buen Provecho!!

And remember to head on over to Latina on a Mission and check out all the other Sabroso Saturday recipes. YUMMO!!