Under 21 Chicken and Wine

I realized after eating, that this picture might be slightly unappetizing just because that leg looks sort of slimy and gross. Pictures from now on will be more strategically delicious-looking.

My first meal in the apartment, and it wasn't too shabby, if I do say so myself.

This is a pretty simple recipe that only takes about 15 minutes to prepare and about an hour to cook.

Things You'll Need (For 1 Person):

A roasting pan with a lid

Chicken (light or dark)

Canned mushrooms

Onion

Garlic salt

Pepper

Parsely

Olive Oil

Butter

Garlic

French bread

Potatoes (optional)

You'll notice there aren't any amounts listed. That's because this recipe really doesn't need to be exact, and everything can be done according to taste. I'd personally put in 2 cloves of garlic and a whole medium onion. The salt I usually judge by doing a zig-zag shake with the shaker across the whole pan so that everything has been "dusted" if you will. Everything else, I don't know that you could really go wrong or right with.

Putting It Together

1. Coat the bottom of the roasting pan with a generous amount of oil. This is going to be the base of the juice, and you'll probably want some for dipping bread in, and if you're using potatoes, they'll soak up a lot of the oil.

2. Slice the onion into rings and slice the garlic and toss 'em in. Drain the mushrooms and invite them to the party, too.

3. You can brown the chicken in a frying pan first, but it's not necessary. Add that to the pan (and the potatoes if you're using them) and drizzle some oil on that, too. Add some butter for flavor.

4. Top it off with your spices per your taste, and cover.

5. Pop it in the oven at 350 and give it about 45 minutes. 15 more should brown it with the cover off--convection settings work well here, but this only applies to ritzy people like my father.

I'd like to take the opportunity to point out that that little roaster there was purchased at a garage sale, and was the first piece of equipment put to use in the kitchen. Talk about $1 well spent!

This meal was legitimately the proudest moment of my first weekend on my own. I wasn't so much impressed by my ability to pull it off, but I recreated some elements of home, and for the short 2 hours that it took to cook, eat, and clean up, things felt like the summer again.

I think it was at that point I decided to make cooking in Missouri my personal crusade against the culinary abomination that this state is. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Mid-MO is what I like to refer to as a food-wasteland. It's not often that you can f-up deep fried foods, but I assure they do that here. And I don't want to get into the way pizza tastes, because, this being a food blog, I feel it would only discourage your appetite. Nevertheless, I vowed that, even though there was no way of proving it, I would serve up the tastiest, most elaborate dishes of any college kid in this town, and I would not succumb to the temptation of eating out and buying pre-prepared food.

Lucky for me, the competition is pretty thin.