Today I cooked Oven Roasted Chicken Legs. I was supposed to make Oven Roasted Chicken. But since it’s halloween, there was a shortage of whole chicken at the supermarket. My second choice was breasts. Still… shortage. So I improvised and roasted chicken legs.

People kept asking me if it’s the same as Pepper and Peppers‘ Iberian Chicken. I’m not sure. And I can’t find a good definition of Iberian Chicken online, but most of the recipes I found online had same ingredients as the one I planned to make.

Oven roasting chicken is an arduous process of basting every 10 minutes or so, controlling the heat so the chicken would be cooked and be perfectly browned but not dry. It was also a balancing act with 4 dishes full of chicken legs, onions, potatoes, and garlic cloves being roasted all at the same time.

But I was gungho and insisted on doing most of the work, with the help of Nang Merlyn who, once again, did the mise en place for me.

3:15 pm Coating chicken with salt, pepper, and rosemary.

3:45 pm Inserting the bay leaf, thyme, and garlic inside the leg.

3:55 pm Arranging the potatoes and onions in the dish. I also added some garlic cloves.

4 pm Heating the oil with butter. This will be the basting liquid.

4:10 pm Basting the chicken and veggies with the hot oil.

4:15 pm Covering the dish with foil and putting it into the oven. I did this so the chicken would initially be steamed, and will cook better without getting dry.

4:45 pm Removed the foil and basted with oil. The rest of the cooking will entail, just basting the chicken.

4:55 pm Basted the chicken. Oven isn’t heating from the top. I think the chicken won’t brown well.

5:10 pm Second oven rack is here. 2nd batch of chicken also in the oven now. I made the top part start heating. I hope the chicken will brown well.

5:20 pm Basted the chicken again. Most of potatoes and onions are now cooked.

5:55 pm Chicken is almost ready. Meat is very tender. Waiting for guests so I can start broiling to brown.

6:02 pm I’m starting to broil the 1st batch.

6:10 pm Making the gravy. First batch is cooked.

6:30 pm 2nd batch is cooked.

Learned that it’s best to keep heat in the mid range with the chicken cooking in the bottom rack first. Then, transfer it to the top rack and turn on the broiler for about 10 minutes to brown the chicken. It looks more yummy that way.

And yeah, it kicked ass. According to Kuya Andrew, it was yummy but he didn’t have enough. Maybe half a chicken per person would do next time. All the others loved it, and the fact they could pronounce the dish this time. Unlike the dish we had two nights ago. And my special gravy? Anne, Chattee, and Brendel ate it like it was the main dish. LOL! They also loved the potatoes and the garlic. We should have had bread on hand to put those olive oil and grits on. YUMMEH!

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