Recipe of the Day: Orange Whiskey Chicken

[howeird]

Last night's foray into the culinary arts was a variation of a recipe I learned in the summer of '69 when, among other summer intern chores, I ran camera at KOMO-TV in Seattle for their local cooking show. The chef was a woman about the same age as Julia Child, but I recall her to have a lovely speaking voice and very approachable personality.

This one show, her special guest was a representative of a Kentucky distillery, and together they prepared a main dish and a dessert. The dessert was crocked cherries (which is an other story altogether) and the main dish was Orange Whiskey Chicken.

They made it in a cast iron skillet atop the range, flaming the whiskey, which looked great on camera. And they used chicken breasts, which came out a little dry. But the taste was great so I adapted it for my tastes (dark meat) and oven:

• Preheat oven to 375°.


• Put as many chicken legs & thighs in a glass roasting pan as will fit in a single layer.


• Pour enough cheap whiskey as it takes to come up 1/3 to 1/2 the depth of the pan


• Slice one or two large naval oranges into 1/4-inch-thick disks. Place the discs on top of the chicken until most of the chicken is covered.


• Slice up an apple and place the slices strategically in the gaps between chicken parts


• Cover with aluminum foil


• Bake for an hour, or until the chicken tests as done


• Uncover, remove the orange slices, drain off most of the liquid in the pan and bake for 15-20 minutes until chicken is golden brown

I serve the chicken with the apple and orange slices, but YMMV on that.