Dry-Rubbed Chicken

Amy in Santa Monica last week.

The decision to enjoy chicken and noodles for Amy's farewell dinner delayed implementing Julie's alternative plan to try dry-rubbed chicken by a day.

Most of these Q-CC recipes start based on meals that Julie thinks might be good, because what I might suggest would frequently be too spicy, mustardy, bell peppery or flavorful in some other "exotic" way for Julie's more discriminating palate. 

After spending the first few years of my life eating mostly cereal and bananas, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or hot dogs, and hamburgers or fried chicken for breakfast, lunch and dinner, respectively (or irrespectively), it's actually quite surprising that I evolved into someone who enjoys Indian food, escargot and sauerkraut.

Interesting, too, that my son Jay went through a similar metamorphosis.  When he was a little boy, for example, we would nuke a hot dog in a bun, wrap it in foil and bring it for him to eat when we joined his cousins Kendra and Kelsey and their parents at Taco Bell for high-brow international cuisine.  Now, he'll try anything, and he frequently introduces us to delicious foods, like the Chinese Northern Style Spare Ribs from the Happy Hour Menu at P.F. Chang's China Bistro.



Julie and Jay by our old Manhattan Beach house.

After going to the horse races last Father's Day, we decided to make similar ribs on our barbecue at home. After careful deliberation, we chose Rancher's Reserve Cowboy Blend with Coffee Steak Rub to go on our homemade ribs, and they turned out great, although they didn't taste much like P.F. Chang's dry-rubbed ribs.

Apparently Julie came across that jar of rub in the cupboard, prompting her suggestion to make dry-rubbed chicken.  This steak rub, as the name implies, is not supposed to be for ribs or chicken, but I decided to follow the steak directions, brushing both sides lightly with Pompeian Fresh Harvest Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  Actually, I don't have a cooking brush, so I used a teaspoon.  I'm not saying I could paint the Sistine Chapel with it, but a spoon worked okay for spreading oil on boneless, skinless chicken breasts, which I had already placed in a glass cooking dish lined with Reynolds Non-Stick Pan Lining Paper.  

I used another spoon to sprinkle the dry rub on both sides of the chicken (you don't want to put a spoon that has been in contact with raw meat back into a jar of spices you plan to use later) and then massaged it into the chicken.  The chicken didn't give me a tip, but I never expected an 18% gratuity.



Laszlo, Gina and Emma appear skeptical of Q-CC ease in NYC.

I baked the chicken for 31 minutes in the convection oven set at 375 degrees.  A regular oven would be about 35 minutes at 400 degrees.  Some people might like it less done than that.  There's always a tradeoff between juiciness and safety, but I personally like poultry to be a little drier anyway. 

Pick your favorite vegetable dish to accompany it, and enjoy this tasty, healthy and quick-clean cuisine.  It's about as easy as going to Church's or KFC, and probably faster.