Fall Off the Bone Roasted Chicken Thighs

So I bought Cristina Fererre's new cookbook Big Bowl of Love last week.

All I have done for the past week and a half is read this book like a bible.

I want to make EVERYTHING in it. Ok, maybe not everything, but a good 98% of it, and I can't say that about many cookbooks.

I love this cookbook not only because the recipes are amazing but also because my friends Todd & Diane from White on Rice Couple took all the photographs...breathtakingly beautiful photographs that make you wish you could rip through the pages and tear the food out to eat it.

I used to watch Cristina on a show called Home & Family. She cooked on the show and the stuff she made looked damn good. I even ordered her first cookbook for my Mom, which she still has and I need to borrow.

I have like a good two months worth of recipes I need make from this coobook. So many wonderful ones to choose from. I started with these Fall off the Bone Chicken Thighs. I love chicken thighs. I'm a dark-meat kinda gal, so this recipe really enticed me.

I knew we would be out in the yard most of the day on Saturday so I prepped the sauce in the morning then just ran back in the house and threw them in the oven.

Let's talk about the sauce! Oh my. Oh my, my, my. Such deliciousness! Evan and I kept sticking our pinkies in the sauce and tasting it. So good. I knew if the sauce tasted this good in the bowl is was bound to be killer when it was cooked..and it was. These are some seriously delicious thighs.

I did omit the chicken stock in the recipe. When I checked at the 45 minute mark I really had plenty of sauce still in the pan so I didn't want to "drown" them in chicken stock. I basted and stuck them back in uncovered. The end result was perfect so I'm glad I skipped the chicken stock.

FALL OFF THE BONE ROASTED CHICKEN THIGHS
Recipe from Cristina Ferrare’s Big Bowl of Love
3 cups chicken stock or chicken broth (I didn't need to add any)
12 chicken thighs, washed and dried
1/3 cup Dijon mustard
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons herbs, finely chopped (your choice, I used thyme, rosemary, parsley & oregano)
1 teaspoon fennel seeds (I omitted these)
Kosher salt
Cracked pepper

Preheat the oven to 350.

Place the chicken thighs in a baking dish.

Combine the mustard, lemon juice, soy sauce and olive oil. Pour over the chicken. Turn the thighs to coat evenly.

Sprinkle on the herbs and the fennel seeds, and then sprinkle on several pinches of kosher salt and plenty of cracked pepper.

Cover with aluminum foil and roast for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and baste. Add in 2 cups of the chicken stock and stir to turn up any of the bits that have formed on the bottom of the pan. Baste again with a bulb baster.

Continue to roast for 60 minutes more, basting every 15 minutes to keep the chicken supermoist. The thighs will turn a beautiful caramel color. If you find that the bottom of the pan is dry, add the rest of the chicken stock.