Eating Food with Spatulas

So as you all know, I've been experimenting with different recipes, trying to "up the ante" on my dinner choices and not accidentaly poisoning my husband while doing so.

I was at the store one afternoon, trying to find something different. I came across a cheap 12 pack of chicken drumsticks and was intrigued. I remembered Ben saying something in the past about hating drumsticks, but this did not deter me. As I mentioned before, Ben also doesn't like spaghetti, which is a real disappointment for me, so Ben's opinions on drumsticks means nothing.

 

I came across the easiest recipe in the world on Cooks.com:

 

1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt (optional)
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. pepper
6 chicken drumsticks
1/4 c. butter, melted

Heat oven to 425°F.

 

Mix flour, salt, garlic powder, paprika, and pepper in a bowl. Dip chicken drumsticks into butter; roll in flour mixture to coat. Arrange in an ungreased or foil-lined square pan, 8 x 8 x 2 inches.

Bake, uncovered, until done, about 50 minutes.

 

The recipe is for 6 drums, but I found that it worked just fine for 12 (or 8 since I know most come in packs of 8 as well). Once again, this recipe calls for dipping the chicken in butter first, which is so disturbing to me, but that is at your discretion of course. I dipped the drums in in a beaten egg, and then coat with the mixture.

 

At 50 minutes, I removed them from the oven and brushed the tops of each one with a little but of melted butter. I only use about 2 tablespoons of butter and you only need a teeny bit on each drum. Put it back in the oven for about 5 more minutes. This helps brown the chicken, since initially when you pull it out, there will still be some flour visible. Nobody wants to eat flour. Well, some people might like eating flour - like those people on those strange obsession shows. One lady eats toilet paper, so flour doesn't seem so bad.

 

I know, I sound like a hypocrite though. I won't dip them in butter, but I will brush it on the top. I suspect this would have given someone the grounds to send me a piece of know-it-all hate mail about this, but even if I did get hate mail, I'd probably just post it on my blog as entertainment. Brushing the tops of the chicken is the not the same thing as rolling them in butter.

 

As for the rice, that literally the best rice I've ever had. This is 'moms garlic rice', straight from the source herself.

 

1-1/2 cups of long grain rice (Uncle Ben's works the best for this)

3 cups of water

3 chicken bouillon cubes, or 3-4 teaspoons of powder chicken bouillon

1 tablespoon of minced garlic

salt and pepper to taste

Butter for browning the rice

 

Pour the rice, minced garlic, and some butter into the pan and brown the rice. Pour the water into the rice along with the bouillon and let simmer on low heat, covered, until finished. Add salt and pepper to taste.

 

This rice, although incredibly easy, is extremely good and I guarantee you will be eating straight out of the pan with the spatula. Spatulas are better for this because you can shovel an enormous amount of food in your mouth at once. If you tell me you've never done this, you're a big fat liar. We've all been there. Standing over the stove, looking around, making sure no one is watching as we stuff our fat faces with food. Then you stick it back in the food and walk away.

 

We're all guilty of doing things in our kitchens that even upsets ourselves. The peanut butter jar is empty, but remains in the cabinet collecting dust for weeks. You open the cabinet and see it, get annoyed with the sight of the empty jar, close the cabinet, wait a minute, and then open it again to see if it's gone. As if the peanut butter jar is going to spring tiny legs and throw itself away.

 

Or that crusty bag of marsh mellows that you've been telling yourself you will use for sweet potatoes since 1998 and you don't even like sweet potatoes. There is something extremely straining about lifting the peanut butter jar out of the cabinet and removing it.

 

I can run 5 miles on the treadmill, but throwing a jar of peanut butter away is strenuous.

 

Getting back to the original topic, this chicken was amazing, and tasted fried, although it's not, I've made it 2 more times after that, and Ben actually requests this now. The last time I made this, I brushed them all with hot wing sauce instead of butter, and they were awesome!

 

Any comments, suggestions or hate mail is welcome =]