Intro: why this recipe

I don’t know about you but in light of what’s going on in our world right now, everything seems to take a bit more energy than it used to. That’s why we are starting with this recipe. It’s comforting, it’s simple, and the cook times (about 1 hour) give you space to catch up, empty the dishwasher, or help your child with homework, etc. That’s why it’s one of my (Anna) favorites!

Also, many of you requested Helen’s recipe for Chicken Soup with Potato Dumplings. In order to make that recipe, we need to make this one first!

A note on EFFICACY

My grandma Toinie never wasted anything in the kitchen. She used to make these casseroles where she’d mix together whatever vegetables, potatoes, and meat she had left over in the fridge, pour some gravy over it, cook it in the oven for one hour and serve it to whoever was around on The Farm that day for lunch. It sounds gross, but it was actually pretty good. Helen does similar things in her kitchen, but in a more sneaky way. That being said, if you plan to join us to make Chicken Soup with Potato Dumplings, be sure to:

Make enough extra chicken so you have two cups of shredded meat left over
Make enough mashed potatoes that you have 1 cup left over
Save your potato water

How Helen came up with this recipe

Grandma Toinie never really put much on her chicken. She just baked it with some spices. My mother always breaded our chicken. She would dip it in egg and then in flour, fry it, and then finish it in the oven. I wanted something more like my mom’s chicken, but frying for that many people is too involved. Somewhere I read that I could just add spices to the flour, coat the chicken with it, and then bake the meat, brushing it halfway through. So I starting making it that way because it was the closest I could get to my own mom’s recipe.

For the Mashed potatoes…I don’t remember. I used to put cream cheese in them, but that wasn’t very good. Don’t do that. Haha!

Jump to Recipe

Steps: Explained, with tidbits and advice

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees or 350 for a convection oven.

2. Trim extra skin and fat from 1 fryer pack or family pack of bone-in cut-up chicken (about 8 pieces of chicken.) Set aside. NOTE: This is a totally optional step. Skip it if it sounds obnoxious. Your dinner will not be ruined.

We always use bone in chicken for this recipes. You can chose whatever bone-in cuts are your favorite. I used thighs in this example. If you are going to make Chicken Soup, plan to have an extra 2 cups shredded chicken leftover.

3. In a medium bowl, combine 1 ½ cups flour, 1 tablespoon granulated garlic , 1 teaspoon seasoned salt, ½ teaspoon ground pepper, 1 teaspoon paprika. Mix thoroughly. NOTE: You can experiment with different spices or dried herbs in your flour mixture. I’d recommend Herbs De Provence or Old World seasoning. When Helen makes this chicken, she exclusively uses Old World plus the spices in this recipe, but we know not everyone can get Old World. Don’t stress. Your chicken will turn out great with just the spices in this recipe.

4. Grease a shallow baking pan or dish (a cookie sheet will work) that will fit all the chicken. Using a shallow pan will make the chicken brown more nicely than a pan with a higher side, but a 13×9 cake pan will work if that’s all you have.

5. Coat chicken on all sides with flour mixture. It should be a light coating on each side. You don’t need a lot of the flour mixture.

Do one side.

Then, the other side. Don’t coat the chicken any more than that. When I’ve worked with my mom in the kitchen, I’ve gotten in trouble for coating the chicken with too much flour. Haha!

NOTE: If you let the chicken sit in the fridge for 60-90 minutes after flouring, it browns a little better. My mom is a throw-it-together-last-minute kind of cook, so she would NEVER do that. If you have the foresight, give it a try.

Place the chicken in pan, skin-side up.

The chicken should be packed tightly together. Really, I should have had one more thigh in this picture…but there’s a pandemic on so…. 😉

You want all the pieces nestled together as close as possible.

6. Put the chicken in the oven on the middle rack and bake. Set a timer for 30 minutes.

7. While the chicken is baking, it’s time to start your mashed potatoes! Peel, wash, and dice 3 pounds of russet potatoes (or whatever potatoes you can get.) NOTE: If you don’t have a scale, one pound of peeled, diced potatoes is about 2 1/4 cups. If you are planning to make Potato Dumplings for the Chicken Soup, make sure you have an extra cup of finished mashed potatoes left over.

For the dice size, it’s up to you. Helen dices her potatoes large (a little smaller than quarters), like in this photo, because she’s making a lot usually, and she says it’s too putzy to cut them smaller. The downside is that they will take longer to cook. I dice mine in 1 inch pieces because I’m usually just cooking for 2 people. The important thing is to make sure all the pieces are around the same size so they cook evenly.

8. Put the diced potatoes in a 5 quart sauce pan. Fill it with just enough water to completely cover the potatoes. Add 1/8 teaspoon salt to the water, cover the pot, and put on the stovetop on high to boil for 15-30 minutes depending on the dice size. Poke the potatoes with a fork or knife to check them. They are done when the knife slides in easily with no resistance. NOTE: Once the potatoes start boiling, if the lid is still on, the water will boil over, so don’t wander off too far from the kitchen. You don’t need the lid once the potatoes are boiling. Put it to the side because you’ll need it later to drain the potatoes.

9. This is a great time to consider your green vegetable side. I made broccolini because I think it’s tasty, but we don’t have a farm recipe for that. A simple lettuce salad or any green vegetable boiled, steamed, or roasted works great, especially of it’s smothered in butter! Since the oven is already on and it’s almost spring, try this asparagus recipe. It’ll come out fine in a 375 degree oven (might just take a little longer).

10. When your chicken timer goes off, pull the pan out of the oven. Use the pan drippings to brush all the chicken, making sure that any dry flour spots are covered. If there are no pan drippings, use olive oil to brush chicken.

In my example, I had some pan drippings for about half the chicken. Then, I had to bust out the olive oil.

When you’re done, you shouldn’t see any flour.

11. Sprinkle the chicken with all the spices you put in your flour mixture (garlic, salt, pepper, and paprika) until it “looks right.” I know. I try to think about it like this: how much salt, garlic, etc would I want in that one bite. It’s a medium sprinkle. NOTE: For those of you who bought the cookbook, this step got left out :0

Here’s my chicken after I added the spices. The good news is that once the chicken is done, you’ll know how you did. If it’s bland, add more spices during this step. If it’s aggressively salty/garlicky, hold back a little bit next time!

12. Bake for another 20-30 minutes or until meat thermometer registers at 165 degrees.

Aside from temperature, you know it’s done when it’s nice and crispy and brown.

13. Once your potatoes are done, use the lid to drain the water into a jar or other container. Let it cool a little while before storing it in the fridge, so it doesn’t heat up your fridge and cause your other food to spoil. Potato water has lots of uses. I want you to save it for the Chicken Soup recipe.

12. Once you’ve got your potato water sorted, it’s time to mash your potatoes. At The Farm, we do them in a mixer because it’s such a large quantity. At my home, I use a hand masher, and then a spoon to mix them once they are mashed. Sometimes, I also mash my potatoes with the pot on a burner set to low so that the add-ins don’t cool the potatoes too much. It’s up to you. At The Farm, the potatoes go from the mixer to a chafing dish and then back into a warm 200 degree oven until we are ready to serve.

Steamy! Whether I’m using a hand masher or mixer, I add 2 tablespoons of butter first, and then mash them. The important thing is to NOT over mash/mix them because your potatoes will turn starchy with a glue-like texture.

13. Once they are thoroughly mashed, gently mix in 1/2 cup milk, 1 tablespoon sour cream, 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder, and 1/8 teaspoon salt. This is your starting point. Once that’s combined, taste it.

What do you think it needs?

After I added those things to my potatoes, they seemed dry to me, so I added another 1/2 cup milk and another tablespoon of butter. Then, I tasted them again. Because I added more milk and butter, I needed more sour cream, salt, and garlic because the liquids diluted the mixture. So I added more of those things. If you are nervous about overdoing it, go slow, adding a little at a time. This is a perfect moment to customize. I don’t like a lot of sour cream. My mom does. You might not want to taste the garlic out right or you might LOVE garlic and dump in a ton! Now’s your chance to play! And keep tasting as you go!

That’s better! It’s much more creamy, like I like!

14. Hopefully, your green vegetable worked out!

So how’d it go? Did you use different spices on your chicken? How did you customize your mashed potatoes? What was confusing? Do you have pictures? PLEASE SHARE! 🙂