Extending cooking length for chicken

As I once wrote, I haven't blogged about food for several months, not so much because I haven't been eating but more because I haven't tried any new dishes. One Friday night a few weeks ago, there were complaints that the chicken drumsticks served were slightly undercooked, in that the meat didn't separate easily from the bone; they were cooked for 1.5 hours. So the next time that I cooked chicken, I gave the pieces another hour, and the results were so spectacular, no only in the ease of separating the meat from the bone but also in the taste, that I resolved to continue cooking for this extended time. 

Apart from the extra time, I also cover the chicken with parchment/baking paper and on top of that, aluminium foil. According to my wife, the paper prevents contamination of the food by chemicals emanating from the foil; this might be true, but it also has the effect of retaining liquid and not allowing the pieces to dry out. 

Since then I've carried out a few experiments: rolling the pieces in a mixture of olive oil and date honey (instead of honey) before placing them in the tray, adding water (with or without soup powder), adding almonds, and today's experiment, adding some pearl barley to soak up some of the excess liquid. I like pearl barley but my wife doesn't, so I've got to find a way of keeping the barley separate but also allowing it free access to the liquid. The next experiment will probably be removing the almonds (that don't seem to contribute very much) and adding plums.

The results have been spectacular!

I find this slightly ironic, as at the beginning of the year, I was conducting experiments with the Ninja grill to reduce the cooking time, and here am I extending the time. The Ninja has lain almost unused for the last six months: it seems that it's only going to be used for grilling steaks and my wife and I don't eat steak (our son does, though). It's the same story with every new cooking appliance: I use it exclusively for a few months, then go back to cooking in the oven.

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From the 'this day in my blogging history', I discover that today is Tom Paxton's 85th birthday.