Ina Garten’s Mustard Roasted Chicken
I’ve been seeing Ina Garten’s Mustard Roasted Chicken recipe floating around the internet for ages now, and I finally got around to giving it a try. The original recipe calls for white wine for part of the marinade, and with no egg involved, I couldn’t see how the bread crumb coating would stick to the chicken. Since I haven’t been drinking lately and Kevin isn’t much of a white wine drinker, I also didn’t want to buy a bottle of white wine just for this recipe either. Luckily, I came across Alexandra’s Kitchen’s rendition of the recipe and really liked the fact that it used buttermilk in the marinade which would also tenderize the chicken. I had also just bought a small carton of buttermilk to use in some breakfast muffins (recipes forthcoming!), so the timing was perfect.
Here’s the recipe from Alexandra’s Kitchen:
INGREDIENTS:
- 4 bone-in, skin-on thighs and 4 bone-in, skin-on drumsticks
- 1/2 cup Dijon mustard
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled
- Small handful fresh thyme leaves (if the strands are soft, no need to strip the leaves)
- Zest of one lemon
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 cups breadcrumbs (she uses fresh breadcrumbs; I used store-bought plain breadcrumbs)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and place oven rack in the middle of the oven. In a small bowl, whisk together the mustard and buttermilk. Place the chicken in a large bowl and pour the mustard-buttermilk mixture overtop. Toss to coat.
- Place the garlic, thyme strands (stems, if they are soft, and all), lemon zest, 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons kosher salt (use 1.5 tsp if you are sensitive to salt), and 1 teaspoon pepper (or a few large cracks on the grinder) in a food processor fitted with the steel blade and process until the garlic is finely minced.
Thyme, Lemon Zest, Garlic, Salt, Pepper - Add the breadcrumbs and olive oil, and pulse a few times to moisten the breadcrumbs. Pour the mixture into a wide, shallow bowl or onto a large plate — something with sides is best.*
Bread Crumb Coating - Line a sheet pan with parchment paper (for easy clean-up — this is not necessary, but I like using parchment.) Dip each piece of chicken skin-side down only into the crumb mixture, pressing gently to make the crumbs adhere. Place the chicken on the sheet pan crumb-side up. After one or two pieces have been dipped, the crumb mixture might not adhere to the chicken as well. Just use your hands to press the remaining crumbs onto the chicken pieces.
Probably Could’ve Used Another 5 Minutes in the Oven to Brown Some More… - Bake the chicken for 40 minutes. Check on the chicken. If necessary cook another five minutes or until the crumbs are browned. Let rest 5 to 10 minutes before serving. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.
*NOTE: The recipe makes way more bread crumb coating than you’ll need in my opinion. I divided the bread crumb mixture in half and froze it for a later date. What was left was plenty to coat the 4 thighs and 4 drumsticks.
The buttermilk and mustard really made a wonderful thick coating on the chicken for the crumb mixture to stick to, and the buttermilk did a great job of tenderizing the chicken too. I was worried that the amount of mustard used was going to overpower the chicken, but it really didn’t. I loved this recipe and look forward to using the other half of my bread crumb mixture on another batch of chicken!
Since we had quite a bit of thyme left over, I whipped up one of my favorite sides to go with the chicken – Parmesan Roasted Cauliflower. YUM!