Souvlaki For The Soul

Chicken drumsticks with rosemary and lemon

The weather’s gone haywire. Here we are midway through autumn and its gloriously warm with temperatures in the mid 20’s. A few weeks ago I started to see brown and red leaves on the trees and today I see flowers in beautiful bloom! Anyway, I was in no mood for soups or stews so I decided to roast some chicken drumsticks. I could have done a “whole bird” but opted for those instead as I wanted a quick roast. Actually, if you’re after a fantastic roast chicken recipe with great commentary head on over to “Gild the Vodoolily” and read Heather’s post on the perfect roast chicken. Highly entertaining and delectably delicious!

I decided to roast the chicken “drummies” using rosemary, olive oil and cut lemon pieces. The flavour of rosemary is pungent and suits the chicken well. When the lemons roast in a hot oven they release all of their juice and create a lovely sauce combined with the olive oil. The final touch was to dot the drumsticks with some sun dried tomatoes approximately 15 mins before the they are due to come out of the oven. The sun dried tomatoes crisp up slightly and provide another element to the dish. I love picking up the drumsticks with my fingers and chewing through the perfectly cooked flesh and tasting the medley of flavours created by the oil, rosemary, lemons and tomatoes. Please note. This isn’t a recipe as such. It’s a “put together with whatever’s on hand” type of meal. You could use other chicken parts, maybe substitute the rosemary for thyme or oregano. You could use some roasted capsicums instead of the tomatoes. You get the idea.

Packed with flavour

RECIPE FOR ROSEMARY CHICKEN DRUMSTICKS

• 4-5 chicken drumsticks
• 4-5 rosemary sprigs
• 1 whole lemon cut into 8ths
• a handful of sun dried tomatoes
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C
2. Arrange all ingredients, except the sun dried tomatoes (add these about 15 mins before the taking the chicken out)
3. Cook for about 45 mins…keep a check on this because every oven is different
4. Let these rest for about 5 mins
5. Serve with some freshly steamed asparagus and crusty bread to mop up all the juicy goodness.