Chicken for All

Several years ago, a friend of mine brought this amazing chicken to a potluck dinner we attended. It was so good, I asked for the recipe and have been making it ever since. I've modified it somewhat, until it's sheer perfection.

You start with chicken thighs. I've tried wings, legs, breasts, but thighs tenderize the best. You remove the skin but leave some of the fat. Put the thighs in a large ziploc and pour K.C. Masterpiece Honey Teriyaki sauce over them, diluted a little with water (this makes it penetrate the chicken better). Seal the bag, squoosh around the marinade, and refrigerate for several days, mixing periodically. You can limit the marinading to 24 hours, if needed.

Spray a 13"X 9" pan with cooking spray. Place the thighs in the pan carefully, making sure each is exposed. It's important none be covered up. Pour a little of the sauce in the bottom of the pan, then drizzle some fresh from the bottle over the chicken - just a drizzle - until they're a nice brown color. Dust with Cajun Seasoning. Bake at 325 for about 1 1/2 hours.

The chicken falls off the bone and is tasty all the way through. The cajun seasoning keeps it from being too sweet and adds some zing. We serve it with brown rice and a vegetable, and the children, even Daelyn, usually have two thighs each, an incredible amount of food for them.

Anyway, we were expecting guests for dinner last night, so I planned this menu. The grocery list I made asked for 5 lbs. of thighs. The package Don brought home had only 10 thighs, which he said was 4.8something pounds. I was a little concerned how they'd stretch to 4 adults and 3 children.

I woke yesterday morning with stomach problems and later got a bad headache. Deanna complained all day of a stomach ache and cramps. Mid-afternoon, we decided we had better cancel out on dinner - no sense passing along some bug to our guests.

I cooked the chicken anyway, since I had been marinading it. As Dane dug into his second piece, I looked at the pan - 2 tiny, little thighs left. I laughed and put on my most stern voice.

"Good thing we cancelled our guests. I would have had to tell them, 'SORRY! I realize you're our invited guests, but you're limited to only one little thigh each. You see, my children LOVE this chicken, and they must be allowed their fill. You'll just have to go hungry or fill your tummies on side dishes.' "

The children roared with laughter. Don looked down his nose unapprovingly and commented that if our guests had come, we would have practiced restraint to be certain they had their fill first. Of course we would have - of course ... However, I'm still not sure there would have been enough. I would have liked to be able to offer 3 thighs to each of our guests (some of them were small and they really are tasty), which would have left 4 to be split between our family of 5.

The long and short of this story is that next time we plan this meal for guests, I need to specify a number of thighs, not a pound weight. And 15 or so would be much more reasonable when we invite two adult guests.

I made it through dinner ( I ate lightly), but then felt so bad, I asked Don if I could be excused to veg on the loveseat in the den. He smiled and encouraged me to go rest. When the kids ran in a few minutes later, I asked them to all go and clear the entire table for me. Although they fussed a little, they did an excellent job. At bedtime, when I made it back into the kitchen to take my medicine, I discovered a clear table except for my drink, which they know enough to leave alone.

I decided to load the dishwasher quickly so I could run it, although I was tempted to leave it for today. The dishes were piled in the sink so I picked up the top one to rinse it. Underneath were each of the children's plates, full of bones. Instead of dumping their plates in the trash, they dumped in the sink, which had a frying pan full of water soaking. The result was bones floating in greasy water that I had to fish out to throw away.

It took a little longer than I expected, but I finally got the dishwasher loaded and made a mental note to tell the children to throw bones away before putting dishes in the sink.

It seems training never stops. I was so thrilled they cleared the table thoroughly. But no time to gloat - we're onto the next training issue. And, as I train them, Don trains me. And we all train the dog. And the dog trains us. We're just one big cycle of training, all learning together.

Just so we get to learn around a big pan full of K.C. Masterpiece chicken.