October 07th, 2021

New Toy!

Well toy in the sense that our kitchen is my playground, I suppose.  I have to admit here that this was not my idea. Nope. This was all Tim.  Because he knows me very well, he occasionally sends me recipes  (isn't that funny - we live in this same small space and see each other all day long but still he emails or texts me recipes - teehee).  I love to find or create new recipes and the above gadget was an essential component to one of those new ways of doing an old thing, which is essentially what a recipe is.

I was dubious when Tim first told me about this contraption, I will be honest.  Seemed like an unnecessary thing.  This is a small house, I don't need any extraneous gadgetry to have to find space for.  Also I subscribe to the Alton Brown method of selecting kitchen do-dads which is to say that the only non-multi-tasker in the kitchen ought to be the fire extinguisher!  Everything else has to have more than one use!  Keep it stream-lined, keep it simple.

Then too,  I have been in charge of meals for a very long time now. Meals are kind of my thing.  I have gotten used to doing things the way I've always done them.  There are things that I've made so many times in my life now that I it doesn't matter if I'm half asleep when I'm cooking or baking, I can still knock it out.  There is a level of comfort with that.  And yet, this was an intriguing idea.  I do always try to be open to new ideas. 

What is it for, you ask?  Well it's for cooking things like chicken wings, and chicken legs and I have no doubt that I will find other uses for it as well.  The problem I have always had with cooking things like wings and legs is that the chicken part, which is very fatty,  kind of lays there in the pan re-absorbing it's own fat as it cooks.  Ewww That sounds disgusting to even talk about.  To avoid that, up until now,  I would sacrifice one of my cooling racks for cooking the chicken but then the clean up is the biggest pain in the arse.  Trying to clean stuck up chicken bits off all of those little squares.....ARGH!   I get irritated just writing the words.

So, basically, my thought was that if this is another, better way, then sure, let's check it out (especially since it was not a big financial investment).

Step one was finding a pan big enough to fit this rack.  Not a problem, I could use with a cookie sheet or a large roasting pan. I selected roasting pan.  Next was lining the roasting pan with foil.  Anything that makes clean up easier I am  hugely in favour of.  Then I got the smartypants idea to spray the rack (the entire freakin' rack) with cooking spray.  Once again, easier clean up.  Lastly was taking out the top rack of the oven.  This is tall cooking.

We selected chicken legs for the first trial run.  Primarily because they are pretty cheap and these days carnivores pay big to satisfy their taste buds.  While the oven was pre-heating, I washed, dried, oiled and seasoned the chicken legs.  The I proceeded to load the rack with the chicken legs, joint up.  It was easier than I anticipated but it looked funny.  

It looked kind of like a butcher shop's big walk in freezer or perhaps that thing at the dry cleaners where they monorail your order from the back of the shop to the front.  From there it could not have been simpler.  The legs cooked for about 45 minutes at 425 (sounds wrong, I know, but it was very right)

And the result was, I am told, crispy, juicy, NON-GREASY,  chicken legs.

And thanks to the foil and the cooking spray, clean up was a snap.

​Tim enjoyed it :)  I served it with potato salad and all was right with the world.    It was easy and inexpensive.  Two things that I fully support.

So there you have it, the latest gadgetry in our household.  I think next time I will make chicken wings instead of legs and my mission after that will be to see how else I can utilize this thing.  Two purposes is good, but three is better.  Anything after that is the cherry on top of the sundae. 

If you have any ideas for other things I can use this cooking rack for, I am all ears :)