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Melissa Clark’s Chicken Dijon

Melissa Clark’s Chicken Dijon
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Melissa Clark

I love Melissa Clark and not only because she has the 5th most popular post on Chewing the Fat…see            https://chewingthefat.us.com/2011/05/melissa-clarks-mothers-recipe-for-thyme.html).  She consistently creates truly accessible recipes for readers of her  New York Times weekly column “In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite”.  And I love her because she shares my passion for dark meat chicken.  She adores the thigh for its flavor but, according to this recipe, her true love is the drumstick.  She is a huge fan of how easily drumsticks brown and how juicy they are.  And she’s advocate of cooking one chicken part per dish when she can.  Chicken is notorious for cooking unevenly which explains why dried out breasts are often accompanied by undercooked thighs.  When you confine yourself to one chicken part, you largely eliminate that possibility. And if you, like me, are a Costco shopper, you’re likely buying packages of various chicken  parts including those containing 5 lovely drumsticks

    Now I confess to having wondered what to make with my drumsticks. There are many recipes for thighs and lord knows we have to practically beat off boneless skinless chicken breast recipes.  But unlike the humble wing, which provided 1.25 billion of themselves for Super Bowl Sunday this year alone, the drumstick has always puzzled me.  Until this recipe.  Nothing could be simpler:  You brown the chicken after having given it a healthy shot of salt and pepper.  Then you make the simplest of all pan sauces, return the drumsticks to the sauce and voila!  With 20 minutes effort and another 25 watching them cook, you’ve got a splendid weeknight dinner, full of flavor and a perfect match for some fresh vegetables like the mélange of carrots and snap peas you see on our plate.  The original recipe calls for Crème Fraiche but feel free to dip into the sour cream instead. It’s a perfectly reasonable substitute and far less expensive.  Here’s to Melissa!  And here’s her recipe from Food and Wine.


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