Week 6 of the 2020 Chicken Challenge: Valentines Day Special - Cooking from Fifty Shades of Chicken

"Blushing Parts"....recipe adapted from Fifty Shades of Chicken by E. B. Fowler.

With Valentine's Day approaching, I decided to cook out of everyone's favorite bondage-and-chicken cookbook, Fifty Shades of Chicken.    I've had this book for quite a few years and have made a number of the recipes out of it.   The descriptions/stories that go with the recipes are laugh-out-loud funny in a PG-13 adult humor kind of way (and are meant to be more funny than erotic), and the recipes themselves, while not anything breakthrough or exceedingly original, are decent.

I had to do a little digging through to find a recipe I hadn't made before that looked interesting, and "Blushing Parts" (i.e., cranberry baked chicken with apple cider) was the winner.

Serves 2

2 chicken thighs and 2 chicken legs, trimmed of excess fat and seasoned with salt and pepper

1 1/2 cups apple cider
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled
1 tablespoon butter, cut into 4 pieces

Set aside 1/2 cup of apple cider and 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar.

To get started,  I cranked the oven up to 450F.

For this recipe, it has you making a glaze that also reconstitutes the dried cranberries.  I smashed the chunk of ginger with the flat of a knife.    I put the 1 cup apple cider, 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, the cranberries, cinnamon and ginger into a small saucepan and brought it up to a boil.   I then lowered the temperature and let the blend simmer.   The recipe calls for you to do that for 20 minutes until the mixture is well reduced - I found it only needed about 10 minutes or so to get to the consistency shown above.    Once the glaze was done, I removed and tossed out the piece of ginger.

The chicken gets seasoned with salt and pepper and put into a roasting pan, skin side up.  I always give my pan a spritz of cooking spray just to make sure it doesn't stick.    I poured the fruit and glaze over the chicken and dotted with the butter.  

As you can see, there's really not a lot of liquid in the pan from the glaze.    

I got the chicken in the oven and set the timer - according to the recipe, it should take about 40 minutes for the chicken to roast.

I checked back after about 25 minutes, and while the chicken looked good, I really didn't feel it was "blushing" much - the glaze wasn't visible on the chicken, the cranberries were looking kind of dry, and there wasn't much liquid in the pan other than some but not a lot of the roasting juices.  

So at this point, I opted to deglaze the pan by adding extra apple cider and apple cider vinegar.  I scraped the bottom of the pan, and then basted the chicken with the pan juices, which really gave the chicken some of that blushing color....because if we're going to call it "blushing parts" well then I need a little more color on it LOL.    I let the chicken continue to roast, but went back and basted it two more times to build up the glaze those lovely legs and get some browning going on.

I could have let the pan juices reduce a little more but I felt the chicken was well cooked at that point, so I pulled it out of the oven.

For sides, I made a tri-color quinoa cooked with a little chicken stock and steamed mixed veggies.

So how was it?

I thought this chicken was good but far from great - I frequently enjoy pairing chicken and fruit, and obviously cranberry and apple both pair well with poultry.   However,  it was a little sweeter than I care for, and the ginger flavor was too subtle.   The glaze was very one note - it needed something to really balance it and add complexity.

I did enjoy the combination of apple/cranberry/chicken enough that I'll play around a little bit in the future.    If I keep the ginger/cinnamon, I'd want to add more savory Asian flavors, like temari sauce and fish sauce, with some fresh scallions to finish.    Otherwise, I'd ditch the ginger/cinnamon and swap in more aromatics - rosemary and garlic, or shallots/sage/thyme.    I would also consider swapping the apple cider for a bottle of hard cider, which would tone down some of the sweetness.

I would say that my feelings about this particular recipe really reflect my overall experience over the years of cooking from Fifty Shades of Chicken  -  I can't ignore the book because it really does make me laugh with it's tongue in cheek naughty humor.    The recipes are good but a little basic - with some tweaking, they could be much better.  

Overall Rating:  4 out of 10.   This was decent, but too sweet for my tastes.   It needed a little more savory flavors to balance the sweetness of the apple/cranberry.    

Ease of Preparation:   8 out of 10.   Easy weeknight meal.   The glaze was simple to make.    Roasting was easy but does benefit greatly from basting several times throughout the cooking process.   

Will It Freezer Meal?   The glaze should freeze just fine - make per instructions and after removing the ginger, cool and pour into a freezer bag, add the chicken.   Seal and freeze.    To cook, thaw out and add chicken to a roasting pan; roast as normal.