Reheating time: 10-15 minutes
OK guys- here’s the deal. This summer, forget about all the chicken marinades that you have ever used in the past. You don’t need them. The only one you need is yogurt. That’s it. Just. Yogurt. Nah I’m just kidding, you wanna put other stuff in the yogurt too… but for real, yogurt does wonderful things to chicken. It’s like buttermilk, but… thicker… and it’s actually basically buttermilk, if you were to leave it at a controlled temperature for a bit longer than usual. You can even make your own yogurt! Look it up. We didn’t do that, we got Cabot greek yogurt, added some rose water (which is very cool, as well), a bunch of other stuff that I’m not gonna tell you about, and then roasted them to perfection. What goes great with roasted chicken? Braised chicken, and we’ve got some of that tonight, too. Also, we’ve got a bevy of delicious sides- fluffy basmati rice with crunchy spices and seeds, knock-your-socks-off labneh, and super simple and delicious roasted summer squashes and baby kale, all from applefield farms. Can’t really go wrong here, folks. So, prepare for yogurt-and-chicken induced bliss. It’s happening.
Get in there!
For the chicken:
Best way to reheat the chicken? Grill! Buuuuuuuuuuut it’s gonna rain. So maybe stay inside, and use the upside down grill. What am I talking about? The broiler! For the chicken breasts, we’re going to slice first, then broil. This will make it reheat faster! Starting at the wing joint, slice into ½” strips on a steep bias. Keep all the pieces together, and shingle them on a sheet tray lined with aluminum foil. Drizzle some olive oil or smack a fat pad of butter on top, and broil for 3-5 minutes, till hot and toasty! Skin side up. Once it’s hot, you’re done!
The thighs can also be warmed under the broiler, but may take a bit more time as they are much more dense. A shortcut is to microwave them for a minute or two to take the chill off, then proceed to broil to get some crispy skin action on there. Hot chicken is the goat, and the broiler is the way.
For the rice:
You’ll probably just microwave this, which is fine, I guess. But I definitely recommend frying it up in a nonstick pan. Get the pan nice and hot, carefully plop some butter in there, don’t freak out when it starts smoking, but put the rice in right after the butter! The cold rice will drop the temperature of the pan, but all the heat and buttery goodness will toast up the spices and bloom the flavors nicely. Toss toss toss, and you’re ready to rock! Hot rice = delicious rice.
For the roasted summer squash:
This is one of those components that will simply be better cold. But, I understand sometimes cold food is not really what you’re into. That’s totally fine. You can either warm the squash under the broiler with the chickens, or just pop it in the microwave. Your call!
That’s it!
Rice on the bottom, squash on the side, roasted + braised chicken pieces on top, and saffron labneh all over everything. Yum.
Enjoy! <3 WECO
