SPICY JAMMY DRUMMIES

(With crispy potato smashies)

Book: Hungry For More

Category: White Meat & Sides

Aldi Test*: Drummies: Yes! Smashies: Almost (you could skip the parsley garnish and then, yes)

After the complete success of Shake & Bake Chicken, I figured I needed some more chicken in my life (plus the recipe estimated time was QUICK, which is necessary these days).

I do not normally cook chicken. I'm not a big meat, gal (let me holla at you, pasta & cheese) but when I do cook meat, it's usually of the red variety: sausage (to throw into pasta), ground beef (to turn into chili and pour over pasta), or bacon (to. Throw. Into. Pasta.)

So, chicken is largely unexplored for me. Other than knowing that I have to season the everliving out of it and that the chicken 100% cannot be pink, my expertise is low. The only chicken dish in my regular rotation is Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches, which is a recipe I got off Pinterest in college and is about the only thing I use my crock pot for. Enjoy. It's literally so flipping easy.

Ingredients: Vegetable Oil, Drumsticks, Crushed red pepper, 2 Onions, So much Garlic, Salt, Pepper

This recipe went off relatively smoothly. The only hitch is that my 2 onions the recipe calls for were like eyebrows: sisters, not twins.

Your house is going to smell fantastic obviously due to the stovetop onions.

It almost felt wrong to taint them with the apricot jelly, but luckily there was plenty of garlic to make up for it.

It was not until I had to pour the onion/garlic/jam sauce over the chicken that I ran into my first hiccup. The recipe specifically says that I should be “basting the chicken with the sauce every 15 minutes or so” while it cooks in the oven.

Um.

Damnnit.

I did not own a baster.

I KNOWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!

I'm deeply embarrassed.

I rectified the problem immediately. (I HAVE RECEIPTS! Thank you, Amazon). However, for the evening, I was baster-less. I had to use a spoon to dribble the sauce over the drumsticks. Like a muggle.

TIP #1: Own a Baster

#smh

While the chicken was cooking, I made the crispy potato smashies. Which, this might be a first in #ctjourney, but… I've made them before!

It was not documented or anything, I had received Cravings: Hungry for More from hubs for V-Day (he's excellent with presents) and I was cooking for my family. It is now my mother's favorite way to eat potatoes but she is a little nervous to make them herself because on her first attempt she smashed the smashies a little too hard and they were more like chips - still good though! But, I promise you, as long as you are not over zealous, you'll be just fine.

TIP #2: Don't Hulk Smash the smashies

A little love tap with your palm will do. You're aiming for the thickness of a chocolate chip cookie.

Once both dishes are in the oven. You are almost done. Unfortunately, we have reached the part that scares me: Using. My. Broiler.

I have several reasons to be terrified of my broiler. The main reason being is that I set my kitchen on fire with my broiler once. (More on that on my Parmesan Minestrone post, COMING SOON) It was a small kitchen fire and other than scaring the pants off my husband and deploying a fire extinguisher for the first time, there was no damage.

But on top of the literal fire, I just haven't mastered my broiler - I have never been able to achieve the perfect even broil. This recipe is no exception.

The recipe says: “If you want more color, crank the broiler on low and broil the chicken until the sauce bubbles and the onions darken, 1 to 2 minutes, but be careful not to burn it.”

I DO want more color, so I DO crank the broiler on low and throw the chicken in there for FOUR minutes (anxiously checking every 30 seconds or so after the minute and a half mark because, again, petrified). To no avail, while a few drummies browned, most were still yellow and soggy looking and the ones that did brown were at a severe burn risk if I kept this up.

So I took them out and let them be.

* Sigh *

Also during this whole broiling debacle I ignored the smashies and they burned a LITTLE. They were still more than edible though. See below.

Comparison Time

HOW DID IT TASTE?

Spicy Jammy Drummies

I…. okay, I didn’t love these. Maybe I should blame my broiler but they were definitely very…. wet. The flavor was good, I did like caramelized onions combined with the jelly tang but the texture made it a no from me, dawg.

Est. Cook Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes (25 minutes active)
Actual Cook Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes (45 minutes active)

Ease of Recipe: 3.5/5 (I TRIED and failed to reach desired consistency)

Recipe Rating: 2.5/5

Crispy Potato Smashies

Despite the fact that I charred these puppies a little bit, these are a SMASH hit (ya get it). So easy to make and the results are wonderful. This method of cooking potatoes really maximizes the crispy, salty flavor of the potato skins with the starchy creaminess of the inside. Essentially it is all the best part of potatoes in one snack sized bite. Yuh-um.

Est. Cook Time: 50 minutes (5 minutes active)
Actual Cook Time: 1 hour, 5 minutes (15 minutes active)

Ease of Recipe: 4.75/5 (My mother has messed these up, otherwise I would give it a 5)

Recipe Rating: 5/5

Would I make it again?

The Spicy Jammy Drummies… probably not. It was a pain in the butt to clean the pan (some of the sauce got past my protective layer of aluminum foil) and the result was just not worth it. Skip these, make the Shake & Bake Chicken instead.

Crispy Potato Smashies, on the other hand, have become a staple at my house and should be in yours too! Even when you screw them up, they are great.

This post is part of #ctjourney

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Spicy Jammy Drummies with Potato Smashies