Five-Spice Chicken with Roast Potatoes

Justin seems to be quite obsessed with creating a chicken dish with perfect crispy skin. At least for now he's knocked off the idea of crispy chicken in sauce, but I wonder how long that will last :P Here, chicken is coated in flour and baked in the oven to crispy perfection (or is it? :P) He also decided to serve it with potatoes instead of rice. Wonder if *that* is a good idea? :P Here we go!

What you need:
3 pieces chicken thighs
Cornflour, for coating
1/2 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons chicken stock powder
White pepper

1 kg baby potatoes, halved, or quartered if they are quite large
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons chicken stock powder

What you do:

1. Mix the cornflour, five-spice powder, garlic powder and chicken stock. Mix well, and season with white pepper.
2. Dampen the chicken with some water (or coat with beaten egg, if you prefer) and roll in the seasoned flour to coat. Place chicken pieces on a rack/grill over a roasting dish.
3. Place the dish in an oven preheated to 180 C. Cook for about 30 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, coat the potatoes in the olive oil and chicken stock. After 30 minutes, place the potatoes UNDER the chicken, in the roasting dish. Bake for another 30 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.
5. Serve with BBQ sauce and tomato ketchup.

When Justin took one bite of this, he was whooping and dancing around with joy. I kid you not. He was harping on and on and on and OOOOOOON about how the chicken was not all that salty (he's very sensitive to salt :P) and how oh-so-crispy it was. He proclaimed himself a genius, in fact - and promptly bonked Hadi on the head when Hadi stated it wasn't salty enough. Hadi, not getting the hint, of course, went on further and said it could use some marination, and how he likes his food strong (this is, oh, probably the 50th time we've heard that line this month!). Justin, of course, just ignored him and went on celebrating. (obsessed, I tell you, obsessed with getting crispy chicken!)

As for me, I actually thought it was quite nice. It was reminiscent of fried chicken back in Brunei, only this isn't fried, hehe. The flour coating was creamy, somehow, and even if it wasn't all that salty, there was more than a hint of salt, and that was enough for me. Hadi complained that the five-spice powder didn't go well with the whole taste, though. It seems as if Justin didn't really mix the flour coating well, as although Hadi's chicken had quite a strong five-spice flavour, I could barely taste any in mine, except in little flavour bombs in some parts of the chicken. I don't think it was all that bad, it must be mixed well, that's all. Otherwise, it would be way too overpowering.

As for the potatoes, we don't normally have potatoes for dinner, but there were some on offer, so I guess Justin decided to just go and get it. The whole point of putting the potatoes under the chicken was so that they would catch the chicken drippings from above. This elicited another "I am a GENIUS!" statement from Justin. I am ... not too big a fan of potatoes, but Hadi and Justin love them. When I went to Spain last year, they were eating chicken and roast potatoes for the whole week. :P When I came back, they tried to introduce me to it, but it didn't quite work out, heh. It's not that I don't like it, but I just prefer rice, is all. :) But the thing about potatoes is... you need a LOT. At least you do, if you're eating in our house. :P The 1 kilo of potatoes weren't actually enough for the boys, and they very nearly cooked something else, but managed to control themselves. Heh. But they always have "snacks" in the middle of the night anyway, so it doesn't matter. They WILL eat again tonight, sooner or later.

Quote of the day: I appreciate the potato only as a protection from famine, except for that, I know of nothing more eminently tasteless.