Ata Din Din Roasted Chicken Legs

Dinner has never been easier than throwing some chicken into the oven, but you still want it to taste good! That doesn’t mean, though, that you have to throw in a million extra ingredients. Sometimes it just means a little extra time, or taking a few shortcuts.

My roasted chicken legs do a little bit of both. By letting the chicken sit in a delicious marinade to really soak in all that flavor, plus giving it a good schmear of my Ata Din Din sauce once it’s come out of the oven, bland and tasteless chicken is a thing of the past.

Another shortcut I take is how I go about cooking this chicken. Growing up, my mom used to boil and bake her chicken before adding it to her Obe Ata or her Ata Din Din. I thought this was just too many steps, and it took too long, so I developed my own strategy. Instead of boiling and baking, I bake the chicken covered first, and then uncovered for the last bit. This way, I still get chicken that’s moist and juicy, but it also has that beautiful golden brown crust on the outside.

Ingredients

4 pieces skin on chicken leg quarters

½ Tsp. dried thyme ⁠

1 Tsp. Jamaican curry ⁠

2 Sprigs fresh rosemary ⁠

5 Sprigs fresh thyme ⁠

4 cloves garlic ⁠

1 large yellow onion ⁠

3 Tbsp. olive oil⁠

½ Tsp. sea salt ⁠

½ Tsp. freshly ground black pepper ⁠

FOR SCHMEAR

1 Jar Egunsi’s Ata Din Din or Ofada Sauce

Cooking Directions

1. In a big ziploc bag, combine the sliced onion, minced garlic, curry powder, dried thyme, black pepper, sea salt, 2 Tbsp of oil, fresh rosemary, fresh thyme, and the chicken. Make sure everything is well-combined, and the chicken is well-coated, then place in the refrigerator to marinate for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
3. Place the chicken on a baking sheet, and drizzle each leg with 1 Tbsp of oil. Place sliced onion, thyme, and rosemary on the chicken. Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes.
4. Remove the foil and bake for another 20 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the chicken has reached 175 degrees.
5. Let rest for 15 minutes, then serve with a smear of Egunsi’s Ata Din Din or Ofada sauce and your grain of choice!

Bon Appetit!