I used to be a boneless skinless breast snob. I actually couldn’t imagine eating anything else. We rarely bought chicken thighs and always regretted it when we did and almost never bought anything with the bone in. After eight years of marriage I have cooked one whole chicken, which I did in the crock pot. It was OK, but it didn’t seem nearly worth all the work that went into it. We aren’t big fans of dark meat and I found myself looking for uses for the dark meat where it would be less noticed, like stews and soups. Then something happened. We were out of boneless skinless breast. We hadn’t had chicken in quite a while and I was craving it. I found a bag of three bone-in chicken breasts I bought on sale last fall in the back of the freezer. I have no idea what possessed me to buy them in the first place. I was probably planning a crock pot meal of some kind. So I decided to roast them. I have been totally intimidated by roasting chicken because I don’t own a proper roasting pan. I was sure I would screw it up. But the internet to the rescue, I soon found an easy way to roast chicken. I used a metal brownie pan that was left behind by the previous owners of our house. I followed a simple recipe.
Coat chicken with oil (I used olive oil)
Season (I used lemon pepper bought in bulk at Sam’s Club)
Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes
Reduce temperature to 350 and bake for an hour.
Now these were three very thick chicken breasts so I recommend using less time for small breasts otherwise they will be too dry.
I was that easy and wow was it good. The skin was crispy and delicious and the meat was tender and moist. It was some of the best chicken I’ve ever had. Plus, at the end of the meal feeding two adults and a toddler we had enough meat left for quesadillas and chicken croquettes. Now when I go to the store I look at the split chicken breast and see how reasonably priced it is compared to boneless skinless breast. Right now the best price I can find on boneless breast is $1.99 a pound, maybe $1.79 on sale. Yesterday at Bottom Dollar I found Perdue Split Chicken Breast for $.79 a lb! Perdue has the added benefit of being cage free, antibiotic vegetarian diet fed chicken. (I know it’s not organic or free range, but thus far, organic chicken is outside our budget so I consider this to be the next best thing). Now I finally feel ready to tackle a whole roast chicken. I can’t wait to see how many meals I can get out of one of those.
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