Oven Baked Honey Lemon Chicken with A Hint of Rosemary

Stay-at-home order, related to Covid-19 rules, has been in place (in our area) for more than 40 days. I know that this stay-at-home period is quite stressful for everyone. Everybody has to restrict their movement: no school, working-at-home arrangement, no dining out, no playing outside. But, that is surely the more reasons for us to be nicer to others. I was very surprised to encountered, during my groceries shopping, few not-very-friendly people. Last week, a senior lady pushed me with her bicycle while I was standing in front of the table of a vegetable seller (waiting for my vegetable being wrapped for me).  I did not understand why she pushed me with her bicycle and then just stood there next to me and not waiting in the correct waiting line. The effort I made to avoid being angry and avoid making argument with people in public spaces, surely giving me more stress.

To avoid more stress, I also tried from time-to-time to prepare simple dishes for the family.  Since everybody is at home during this period, we have to plan all meals and snack for the whole family. I am struggling with daily menu. I find that preparing healthy but not boring menu is difficult. I frequently ran out of ideas and energy to plan and execute the food preparation. That is why, simple dishes are from time to time are my life saviour. Because simple dishes mean less stress. 

Last week, I ran out of ideas. It was almost dinner time, but I have not cooked anything. I opened the refrigerator and saw chicken legs and lemon. Then I looked at my garden and I saw that it was time for me to trim my rosemary. I remembered that I saw somewhere recipes for honey lemon chicken. However, I was too lazy to browse for the exact recipe and just made my own version of oven baked honey lemon chicken and served it with home made cream white asparagus soup.

The boys (both the young boys and the adult) at home love it. 

This chicken dish is easy to prepare and we just need to put it in the oven and wait. The taste is not strong, but that is why it was perfect companion for the cream white asparagus soup. 

Do you also love to cook a simple dish once in a while to reduce your stress level?

Ingredients

1+ kg chicken legs (cut into smaller pieces)

1 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp salt

2 tsp white pepper

20 cm long fresh rosemary branch (release the rosemary from the branch, discard the stalk, and chop the rosemary leaves)

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp lemon

1-2 tbsp olive oil

How to make:

1. Clean the chicken and place it in a big bowl,
2. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients and add the honey, lemon, and olive oil. Mixed well,
3. Use the mixed ingredients to marinate the chicken for around 30 minutes or more,
4. Warm the oven (I use convection oven) at 180 Celsius,
5. Put the chicken in a roasting rack and keep the rest of the marinate in a small bowl,
6. Bake the chicken for around 15 minutes and apply the rest of the marinate to the chicken using brush,
7. Return the chicken to the oven and continue baking for another 15-30 minutes, or until the it is cooked thoroughly. To check if the chicken is done, pierce the chicken and check if the meat is already white, not pink anymore and the juice is also not pink in colour.

The chicken is also delicious to eat with steamed rice. I may be biased, but as Asian I love eating many things with rice and sambal (Indonesian chilli paste).

Spare Ribs with Sweet Coriander Sauce

Our family love to have, once in a while, BBQ or grilled food. One of our favorites is spare ribs in sweet coriander sauce. Since I am quite lazy, I frequently make things using oven instead of the real deal: grilling over coals. It is easier for me to clean up, and I do not have to stand quite long outside the house. 

When I moved to Europe, I noticed that western style grill food mostly seasoned with only salt and pepper. The sauce they use for dips usually mayonnaise, mustard, BBQ sauce, garlic sauce, or similar. However, in Indonesia we usually have grilled food with variety of rich sauces. One of my favorites is sweet coriander sauce. It is typical Indonesian.

Here is the recipe I usually use.

Ingredients

1 kg Spare ribs

2 tbs oil (vegetable oil)
1 tbs finely chopped garlic

1 tbs coriander seeds (ground)

3 tbs (Indonesian) sweet soy sauce

1 tsp salt

1 tsp white pepper

(for dips and extra)
sweet soy sauce
2-3 shallot (chopped)
bird eye chili 
lime
tomatoes (cut)

How to make:

1. Clean the ribs,
2. In a bowl, mix the vegetable oil, chopped garlic, grounded coriander seeds, sweet soy sauce, salt and pepper,
3. Marinate the ribs with the mixed sauce. Keep it in the refrigerator until you want to bake it,
4. Warm the oven (I used fan forced) at 200º Celcius,
5. Bake the marinated spare ribs for 30 menit,
6. Change the oven to grill mode, and  continue to bake for 15 minutes,
7. Prepare the sauce: mix the sweet soy sauce, chili (if you like), cut tomatoes and chopped shallot. Sprinkle the sauce with lime juice to taste.
8. Serve it with lontong (Indonesian rice cake) or white steamed rice.