Here is another easy chicken recipe to add to your collection that can also be used on other proteins as well! This dish was inspired by one of my favorite entress at a restaurant up the street called Hillstone. Hillstone is a legend around here and people who know it LOVE IT, the service, the drinks, the food, not to mention it’s got the best lake view of any restaurant I can think of in this town. It’s crazy but everything on their menu is amazing and the ambiance of the restaurant seriously makes you feel like a million bucks. Salads, steaks, soups, everything is over the top delicious and consistent every time! My favorite entree to get from here has always been their Rotisserie chicken with apricot glaze. Now I know they probably use more butter than I would want to admit so my recipe does not follow that same path of flavor but I think what I’ve come up with hits the spot! The key to getting the most flavor out of your chicken thighs and legs is to season the chicken under the skin as well as on the surface. This way the chicken will have flavor from the skin as well as the meat itself getting a little flavor love.
The glaze for this chicken is what makes this meal unique. I took a typical apricot glaze recipe and spiced it up a little by adding rosemary and jalapeños. That’s right, jalapeños, now just because we’re adding this spicy element in all honestly they add a special sweetness to this dish after being roasted at such high heat their spicy flavor turns into a candied treat within the glaze. I love rosemary of course but I wanted to add another element to this glaze and the first thing that came to mind was stone ground mustard. The addition of the stone ground mustard not only adds beautiful texture to the glaze but a certain level of bitterness to balance out all of the sweet happening from the apricot preserves.
I recommend serving this dish with a cold salad, I like to serve it with tabouleh which is a Mediterranean parsley salad. Along side some herbed couscous that can be served at room temperature, hot, or cold, it makes for the best accompaniments in my opinion. Although, I could be bias since those are the sides they serve with their chicken at Hillstone, to each their own.
The trick to getting the skin nice and crispy is using your broiler when needed. Through the baking process the skin will sometimes get as crispy as you’d hoped. However, depending on how the glaze is reacting to the skin as you based the chicken you may need to finish the chicken off under the broiler for 3-5 minutes to ensure that nice crispy charred skin that we love so dearly.
Serves: 4-6 Prep Time: 10 minutes cook Time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:
4 Skin on Chicken Thighs
4 Skin on Chicken Drumsticks
3 tbs. Butter (divided)
1/2 cup Apricot Preserves (low sugar)
1 tbs. Soy Sauce
1 tbs. Brown Sugar
1 Clove Garlic (minced)
2 Springs Rosemary (roughly chopped)
1 tbs. Stone Ground Mustard
1 Jalapeno (thinly sliced)
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Pepper
Method:
- Pre heat oven to 375 degrees.
- Prepare chicken by placing in greased baking dish, season the skin and under the skin with salt and pepper. Rub 1-2 tbs. of butter underneath the skin directly onto the meat.
- For the glaze, in a microwave safe measuring cup add the apricot glaze, soy sauce, stone ground mustard, garlic, rosemary, jalapeno, brown sugar, and 1 tbs. of butter and heat in microwave for about 3 seconds until the apricot preserves are loosened and the mixture can be stirred easily to combine.
- Pour 3/4 of the glaze over the chicken and using a basting brush or fingers ensure the chicken is coated well with glaze.
- Once oven is ready place chicken in the oven for 25 minutes, based the chicken with glazed from the pan and turn the oven up to 400 degrees.
- Bake chicken for another 20-25 minutes until the chicken is tender but cooked through and skin is browned and crispy.
- Should you need to get a better crisp on your skin turn the oven onto broil and keep a close eye on the chicken. Broil for 3-5 minutes until the skin is charred and crispy.