Sprinkle them with garlic powder, paprika, and a good dried green herb (tarragon, oregano, chervil, marjoram, anything along those lines) and stick them in a 350-degree oven for 45 minutes.

Marinate them in yogurt and garam masala and a little curry powder, then grill them.

For two people:

I mix 1/4 cup honey, 1 TBSP ketchup, 1-2 TBSP Soy sauce, drizzle it over chicken pieces, cover and bake for ~45 minutes on 350. Uncover and bake a little longer for a chewy skin.

Sometimes I use pieces with the bone, somtimes I use boneless skinless breasts. It goes with any variety of chicken parts.

Yogurt also works if you bake them. I like to mix various spices in yogurt, spread it all over the chicken in a baking dish and cook at 350-400 for about an hour. Whether grilling or baking, it's good to put slashes through the meat with a knife to let the marinade get into the meat more (and it cooks faster). The yoghurt keeps it from getting dry, and as the water evaporates and it mixes with the chicken juice, it takes on a totally different consistency that works well as a thick sauce (and it nicely crackles the top).

I've done something like eeyorerin's grilled version with garam masala and curry. I also like doing it with a creole style spice mix of cayenne, paprika, marjoram, salt and black pepper.

I love me some chicken thighs. I like to brown them in a skillet to crisp up the skin a bit, then put them in a baking dish with something moist and savory and bake at 350 till done.

Recent examples of "something moist and savory":

* An improvised cacciatore-style sauce made of a can of diced tomatoes, a little tomato paste to thicken, a few pinches of Italian herbs, some sauteed onion and garlic and a chopped Portobello mushroom.
* Variations on Chicken Tikka Masala and other curries, sometimes with chopped potatoes, eggplant or other vegetables added.
* Spaghetti sauce from a jar, boosted with additional garlic and onions, and a handful of parmesan on top

I like to put chicken thighs in a crockpot over stew veggies (celery, carrots), garlic [powder], onion [powder], more veggies, water for soupy goodness, cook on low 8 hours. Mmm. Alternately, use cinammon and curry instead of garlic/onion.

Or, put in baking pan with some Carolina Treet barbeque sauce (not sweet; it has turmeric and mustard and I could look up the rest, not sure if one can find it outside of NC) on it, bake 20 minutes at 400, 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees. Or just an hour at 350, though I think it's juicier the other way.

I also like lemon-butter chicken (350/hour), and the yogurt idea mentioned already above.

I'm afraid my approach to chicken is boring, but it's what my mother always did, and I've always loved it, so it's usually what I do. I take whatever dressing/marinade/sauce/whatever is close to being used up in the fridge (salad dressing of any sort is great for this), rub it all over the skin, and bake. Works really well with a whole chicken, too.

I'm all about the skin. Everyone else at the table can have my meat if they'll fork over their skin.

Oh, and I usually use bone-in thights for chicken and dumplings. If you like that sort of thing, I can type in the recipe. Hmm, wonder if I've put it on rec.food.cooking in the past? Lemme look. Okay, looks like I only have the part where you add the dumplings to the stewed chicken. If you want the part where you stew the chicken, let me know and I'll type it in.

Oh, wait, again. I wonder if it's on my MasterCook. :-)

Nope. I'll type it in if you want.

I think it's a little more Middle-America than klwalton's, but if she likes hers, I'd go with that. :-)

The BH&G recipe is here -- sorry about the popups; I can't believe I decluttered the woodpulp book. I get on these get-rid-of-everything rampages sometimes. :-)

My partner's invention.

Saute onions in generous amount of olive oil. Dredge the thighs in flour mixed with curry spices: coriander, cumin, turmeric, fenugreek, cayenne, maybe a touch of clove or ginger if you fancy (proportions up to you, but I've listed them in descending order of quantity) and salt. Brown the thighs, then barely cover with stock. Add a few whole cardamoms. Coursely chop ripe mangoes and put over the chicken, and cover the lot with a thick layer of fresh spinach. Cover tightly and simmer for 40 minutes to an hour. The spinach should steam and sort of seal the dish. Serve over basmati rice.

also, mangoes should be just the flesh, not the skin or pit, obviously.

Take one chicken leg. Sprinkle with tasty spices (whatever you have -- experiment! starting perhaps with rosemary or tarragon). Wrap with a slice of bacon. Seal in aluminum foil. Bake in medium-hot oven (350 deg. F) until done. You can't overbake this one -- 30 to 45 minutes is good.

Ya know, I think I always tossed the bacon. I forget. Wow, it's been ages. I only remember how tasty the chicken was.

Here's what I did with thighs (two for just me) back when I cooked:

Turn the broiler on (I did this in a toaster oven), wash the thighs, shake lemon pepper liberally over them, put them on the broiler pan, cook for 10-15 minutes.

Our family's recipe for fried chicken (I found out when we moved to Virginia that what we made was really oven-fried chicken and most people made fried chicken by cooking it in oil!) can be made with any amount or parts of chicken.

Preheat the oven to 350F (I've done this in the toaster oven, too). Wash the chicken, dip in skim milk, then roll in smushed rice krispies (I used to put the rice krispies in a lunch bag and use the rolling pin over it a few times), then place on a cookie sheet with raised edge in the oven for 30 minutes. You might want to put foil on the cookie sheet to make the sheet easier to clean up.

Marinate overnight 1 chicken, cut up into 8 pieces, in:

white wine (about 1/4 cup)
orange juice (ditto)
bay leaves
pepper corns
bruised fresh rosemary and Italian parsley

Slice up half a Spanish onion and peel the cloves of a head of garlic, smashing them slightly.

Cut 4 medium potatoes into 4 wedges each. Toss in olive oil with a couple of tablespoons of fresh chopped rosemary, thyme, oregano, salt and pepper.

Heat oven to 400 F. Oil a heavy baking dish. Take the chicken out of the marinade and sprinkle with the same herbs on both sides. Arrange the chicken, potatoes and garlic on top of the onion, with a few new bay leaves tucked in. Pour off the liquid marinade, discard the old herbs, and whisk in another 1/4 cup each of olive oil and white wine. Pour over the chicken and potatoes.

Bake for 45 minutes. Check occasionally and baste if it seems wise. There was a lot of juice last time I made it, and I reduced it about 10 minutes before the chicken was cooked through, and then drizzled it back over.

You can easily make this with just thighs :-)

Yes, because the last time I made it there didn't seem to be enough juice off the marinade itself. I'd maybe do 2/3 wine, 1/3 oil instead of equal parts, as it waas quite oily.

Take your food scraps and put them out for the chickens to eat.

(I hope that whatever recipe(s) you *do* pick turn out fantastic!)

Get some packaged mesquite-BBQ sauce mix, and make it up using apple juice instead of vinegar. Marinate your chicken legs & thighs for several hours (we do this using gallon-sized Ziploc bags, which can be easily squeezed and turned), then bake them until done, basting occasionally with the remaining marinade. You will not believe how good they taste!

My favorite chicken recipe evolved out of my dislike for washing dishes. This recipe is very forgiving, you can use 1 to 3 lbs of meat, and as many vegetables as will fit in the bag. The following is my usual recipe.


1 large baking dish (13x9, preferably glass)
1 reynolds Oven bag (shake 1 tablespoon flour in bag before filling it with the following ingredients)
2 lbs. of chicken legs/thighs
1 clove garlic (optional)
2 chopped celery sticks (optional)
2 onions quartered(optional)
1 lb each of carrots, red potatoes (or any root vegtables)
1 pkg of Knorrs dry onion or vegetable soup mix

Bake at 350 for 1 1/2 hours.

For more recipes utilizing the oven bags see http://www.alcoa.com/reynoldskitchens/en/recipes/product_recipe_search.asp?Step=ShowRecipe&RecipeID=330&parent_info_page_id=744&info_page_id=745&prod_id=1790&cat_id=1337