Cooking Adventures: chicken and carrots

Cooking Adventures is a series where I regale you with tales of my time in the great unknown.

AKA I, as a very, very inexperienced cook, (try to) make food that tastes good, and then tell you what went wrong. And hopefully right.

PROLOGUE.

During the summer, I bought the cookbook Well Fed: Paleo Recipes For People Who Love to Eat at Half-Price Books (by the way, I definitely do NOT eat paleo) after I saw this post. From the book, I picked out the recipes Grilled Chicken Thighs and Cumin-Roasted Carrots. Because how hard can chicken and carrots be?

And so, the adventure begins.

CHAPTER ONE.
Ingredients

Chicken for 6 to 8
(oops forgot to take a picture)(just use your imagination)
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
Salt
Ground black pepper
Coarse (granulated) garlic powder
Paprika: did not use this

Carrots for 2 to 4

1 pound fresh carrots (about 10)
1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon: I did not have this
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper: or this
1 1/2 tablespoons coconut oil: substituted with avocado oil
1/2 fresh lemon (optional): nope, used a lime
a few leaves of fresh parsley and mint, minced, for garnishe (optional)

CHAPTER TWO.
The Process

Chicken
Preheat the oven to 400 F.
Usually I save preheating the oven for after I’ve gotten everything ready because I’m super slow, but this time getting everything ready only took around fifteen minutes. Which is only ten more minutes than how long the cookbook says it should take.

Put a baking sheet over a baking tray. Then put the chicken on, smooth side up. Sprinkle generously with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, then add just enough paprika for a little kick. Flip the chicken over and season on both sides.

I think I went a little overboard.

Bake 30-35 minutes until juices run clear and the tops are well browned.
Where does the juice come from?

Carrots
Preheat the oven to 400 F.
Wash, peel, and chop the carrots.

I started peeling for two seconds before my mom stopped me. Apparently, carrot skin has very good nutrional properties. So the carrots were left in the natural state.

With a fork, mix the cumin, cinnamon, salt, and pepper in a small microwave-safe bowl. Add the coconut oil and microwave until melted, about 15-20 seconds.
Wow, I completely ignored this step. I did not mix the spices and I did not melt the oil in the microwave. Partly because mine was already in liquid form and partly because I am pretty anti-microwave. 

Pour the seasoning over the carrots and mix until the carrots are evenly coated. Sing a verse of your favorite song so you don’t skimp on tossing time. Do a taste test and adjust the seasonings.

Oops, I didn’t sing a song either.
Taste testing the carrots was a bit strange because the it was a hard, raw carrot with a bunch of flavored dust on it. I also realized that I had cut the quantity of carrots in half (and then given two to my mom) but had forgotten to lessen the amount of seasoning. Double oops.

Spread the carrots in a single layer on the baking sheet and roast for 15-20 minutes, until tender and slightly browned. Remove from the oven and squeeze the fresh lemon juice over the top. Sprinkle with the chopped herbs.

CHAPTER THREE.
Taste Test

After I thought I had put way too much seasoning on both the chicken and carrots, they were not unbearably flavorful at all. Whew. But I did not leave the carrots to roast long enough, so they were not soft at all. The chicken was good but nothing crazy amazing.

EPILOGUE

These are two basic recipes that I am glad to have in my metaphorical toolbox. I thought they were easy.

P.S.

I went to my first friday night football game yesterday. Our school’s team isn’t very good, the other team was worse. We beat them pretty badly, which is kind of sad because it was their homecoming game too. I saw a guy wearing a garter and I have to say, I don’t care for them, and I think mums are way to over the top. But the other day I saw two boys with the pink mum forms for their dates and AHH THAT’S SO CUTE. Do you know what mums and garters are? It’s a southern tradition. They’re basically huge, pretty blobs of ribbon.