Apple-y Goodness: Apple Cider Baked Chicken

I’m going to let you in on a little secret.

I.

LOVE.

Apples.

I think part of it stems (yes, pun intended) from growing up in Upstate New York. We lived a half mile from an apple orchard; every fall, my folks would take me and my brother apple picking. Homemade applesauce was mum’s specialty - and it was PINK, which makes it all the better. Having moved to the midwest, I realized I’m extraordinarily picky about my apples...and I can’t get a good macintosh apple (insert obligatory computer joke here) out here to save my life.

Needless to say, when Zac and I were surfing through my pintrest board of “ooh, that looks tasty and I want to try that sometime” recipes and his eyes lit on the Apple Cider Baked Chicken, I was more than ready to write the grocery list!

And it’s a pretty simple grocery list at that. Some chicken legs, potatoes, onions, lemons, apples, apple cider, and mushrooms, plus some pantry staples like olive oil and salt and pepper and bay leaves. All in all, it’s a pretty inexpensive and uncomplicated grocery list, requirements for just about any recipe I’m going to try!

The only tricky bit to this recipe is the planning ahead component. For all that I love planning ahead when it comes to Things I’m Doing and People I’m Hanging Out With, Zac and I are reeeeeeally terrible at forseeing anything beyond “what am I hungry for right now?”

Fortunately, the only planning ahead this recipe calls for is measuring and dumping things into a giant ziplock bag! The night before (or in our case, the morning of) you just gotta put the onion, lemons, apple cider, olive oil, thyme, apple cider vinegar, mustard, garlic, bay leaves, salt, pepper and chicken legs in the ziplock bag and let it marinate till it’s time to cook.

What’s nice is that once you’ve done that work in the morning, all that’s left to do when you’re actually cooking is chop up the potatoes and apples (and mushrooms if you want to add those to the recipe!), dump everything in a cast iron skillet or casserole dish and stick it in the oven for an hour and change.

And then you get this sort of tasty deliciousness that is full of apple-y goodness:

And since we had more cider than the recipe called for, of COURSE our drink for the night was apple cider spiked with honey whiskey!

So here you go! Next time you’ve got a hankering for something delicious with apples and cider, we’ve got you covered :)

Apple Cider Baked Chicken 

Prep Time: 30 minutes, plus 4-24 hours of marinating

Cook Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Servings: 6-8

Ingredients:

• 1 large onion, peeled and cut into eighths
• 1 large lemon, sliced into thin rounds
• 2 cups apple cider, homemade or storebought
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh thyme, plus more for garnish
• 2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 2 tsp. Dijon mustard
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 6-8 chicken legs or thighs
• 2 large apples, each sliced into eighths
• 1 lb. small, red or Yukon Gold potatoes, halves

Special Equipment: A large bag or container for marinating. 

 

Instructions:

1. Place a gallon size heavy-duty zip-top bag into a large bowl. Place the onion, lemons, apple cider, olive oil, thyme, apple cider vinegar, mustard, garlic, bay leaves, salt, pepper and chicken into the zip-top bag, combining well. Close the bag, place in the refrigerator to marinate for at least 4 hours or up to 24 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Arrange the chicken pieces in a large roasting pan skin-side up. Pour all of the marinade, including onions and lemons over and around the pieces. Tuck the apples and potatoes around the chicken. Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring once halfway through to re-coat everything with the marinade.
3. Arrange chicken and potatoes on a platter and sprinkle with chopped fresh thyme.