Helen's Baked Chicken and Creamy Mashed Potatoes
Servings: 6
Ingredients
Baked Chicken
- 1 fryer pack or family pack of bone-in cut up chicken, about 8 pieces of chicken
- 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp granulated garlic
- 1 tp seasoned salt
- 1 tp ground pepper
- 1 tp paprika
- 2 tbsp olive oil (maybe)
Creamy Mashed Potatoes
- 3 lbs russet potatoes
- ¼ to 2 tp salt
- 2 to 4 tbsp butter
- ½ cup milk
- 1 to 3 tbsp sour cream
- ⅛ to 1 tp garlic powder
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees or 350 for a convection oven.
- Trim extra skin and fat from chicken (optional)
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, granulated garlic , seasoned salt, ground pepper, and paprika. Mix thoroughly.
- 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.
- Coat chicken on all sides with flour mixture. It should be a light coating on each side.
- Place the chicken in pan, skin-side up. The chicken should be packed tightly together.
- Put the chicken in the oven on the middle rack and bake. Set a timer for 30 minutes.
- While the chicken is baking, peel, wash, and dice potatoes
- Put the diced potatoes in a 5 quart sauce pan. Fill it with just enough water to completely cover the potatoes. Add ⅛ 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.
- 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.
- Sprinkle the chicken with all the spices you put in your flour mixture until it “looks right.” 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.
- 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.
- Once your potatoes are done, use the lid to drain the water. Don't forget to save it!
- Add the butter to the potatoes. Mash them with a hand masher or mixer until no lumps remain. Be careful not to overwork them or they will turn out gluey. If you want to keep them warm, mash them in the pot over a burner on low.
- Once they are thoroughly mashed, gently mix in ½ cup milk, 1 tablespoon sour cream, ⅛ teaspoon garlic powder, and ⅛ teaspoon salt. This is your starting point. Once that’s combined, taste it. If they are dry, add more butter and milk. If you can't taste the salt, garlic or sour cream, add more of that. Do this little by little, and keep tasting until you've got it just the way you like it!