Weeknight Whole Chicken

If I had nothing else to do in life, but create amazing multicourse meals every single night, I’d be thrilled.  Exhausted, but thrilled.  The rest of the time, just like every other household in America….I slap something together.  No frills and the less fuss the better.  I have a couple of go to casseroles when I realize about 3pm that I forgot to take something out of the freezer.  And there’s always meatless dinner options.

Last night, I spatchcocked a small chicken and fried up some zucchini.  My favorite way to eat zucchini is fried and dipped in ranch.  I had some buttermilk leftover from biscuit making, so I made some ranch dressing.  I read somewhere on the internet that panko and shredded parmesan was a good crust.  I found it bland.  I usually use my own bread crumbs, but I like to try new things.  Most of the cheese ended up floating away in the oil, which was annoying.  Fine.  I have two more zucchini, so I’ll make them with my bread crumbs to get my fix later.

For the chicken, I used a decades old trick I’ve been using since forever.  I simply poured Italian salad dressing on it and stuck it in the oven.  The end.  What ends up happening is the dressing and the chicken juices meld together in the pan.  I’ve used a creamy balsamic dressing a few times, but mostly I use an oil and vinegar based salad dressing.  Hubs made a fire so we ate in the living room in front of the TV.  Netflix night!  There’s nothing like pulling juicy chicken off with your fingers and dipping it right into the pan juices.  Ok, I might have used a fork.  Ignore the blackened wing tips.  Who eats those anyway?!