Chicken and Potato Bake

Back to school. Hodge Elementary opened its doors on Monday and I was in that kitchen at five a.m. with my apron on and my radio playing and four hundred lunches to make. Thirty-three years and the first day still gives me butterflies, baby. Good butterflies. The kind that come from knowing you're exactly where you're supposed to be.

New faces in the lunch line — the kindergartners. Little people with big eyes and trays they can barely carry. One girl, no bigger than a minute, walked up to the counter and said, "What is that?" pointing at the green beans. I said, "Those are green beans, sugar." She said, "I don't like green beans." I said, "You haven't tried mine yet." She took a spoonful. She ate every one. She came back and said, "I like YOUR green beans." That is the highest compliment in my profession.

I saw Monique in the hallway — Denise's daughter, my granddaughter, who teaches third grade at Hodge now. She was herding her students toward the cafeteria with the calm authority of a woman who learned classroom management from growing up in the Henderson family, where you either speak up or you don't eat. Monique waved at me and I waved back and I thought: I have fed children at this school for thirty-three years, and now my granddaughter teaches them. The roots go deep, baby. The roots go deep.

Speaking of Monique — she told me something interesting this week. She's been dating a man named James Carter. A teacher too, math, at a middle school across town. She brought him to Sunday dinner last month and I fed him and watched him. He's polite, eats with his mouth closed, and he looked at Monique the way Earl used to look at me — like she's the only interesting thing in the room. I told Denise, "That boy will do." Denise said, "Mama, you've said that about exactly two men in thirty years. Earl and Devon." Devon is Kayla's new boyfriend — a paramedic she hasn't told me about yet because she thinks I don't know. I know everything, baby. I feed people. They tell me things.

Made a big pot of chicken and rice for the first-day-of-school dinner. Nothing fancy, nothing complicated. Just comfort. The kind of meal that says: we made it to another year. We're still here. We're still cooking.

Now go on and feed somebody.

The pot of chicken I made that Monday evening wasn’t chicken and rice — it was this, a Chicken and Potato Bake, the dish I turn to when I’ve been on my feet since five in the morning and I still want something that tastes like I put love into it. After feeding four hundred children and watching Monique herd her third graders down the hallway like she was born to it, I needed a dinner that would hold the whole family together without asking anything more of me than an oven and a little patience. This is that dinner — golden, simple, and exactly right for a night when the roots go deep.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 1 hour | Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

3 lbs bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and drumsticks
1 1/2 lbs baby potatoes, halved
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 lemon, half juiced and half sliced into rounds
2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped, for serving

Instructions

Heat the oven. Preheat your oven to 425°F. Lightly grease a large rimmed baking sheet or 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray or a drizzle of olive oil.
Season the potatoes. In a large bowl, toss the halved baby potatoes with 1 1/2 tablespoons of the olive oil, half the minced garlic, the rosemary, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and a few grinds of black pepper. Spread in a single layer on the prepared pan.
Season the chicken. Pat the chicken pieces dry with paper towels. In the same bowl, toss them with the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, remaining garlic, paprika, thyme, onion powder, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Rub the seasoning evenly over and under the skin.
Arrange and top. Nestle the seasoned chicken pieces skin-side up among the potatoes on the pan. Squeeze the lemon juice over everything, then tuck the lemon slices around the chicken.
Bake. Transfer the pan to the preheated oven and bake uncovered for 50 to 60 minutes, until the chicken skin is deep golden brown and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reads 165°F. The potatoes should be fork-tender and beginning to crisp at the edges.
Rest and serve. Let the pan rest for 5 minutes before serving. Scatter fresh parsley over the top and serve straight from the pan — there’s no need to dress it up.

Nutrition (per serving)

Chicken and Potato Bake — The Pot That Says We Made It to Another Year