Chicken ala Rockwell - Rec1pe.1
As a grad student, I make no money and I got no time. Ok, I make "some" money, but I'm definitely on a budget. I'm not exaggerating about the lack of time though. The commute, the meetings, the experiments, the administrative stuff... it's a lot to juggle. Not to mention, the brunt of the actual job description (experimental design, data analysis, presenting results, keeping up with the literature, and managing "politics") ...it's rather time consuming. It's a pRIveLage to do science and blablabla whatever, but I am by no means "unique"in my situation where work eats up so much free time that it's difficult to do basic things such as COOKING. A typical day is: Wake up around 5am, walk my dog, get to my lab around 8am, read papers until first meeting of the day around 9am, meetings go until ~11 or ~2 (depending the day of the week), do experiments for however long they take (till maybe 4pm or 10pm), go home, then START data analyses (prioritizing what needs to be presented soonest) until anywhere from ~11pm to ~2am. Go to bed. Repeat... What time is there to COOK? Sure, at the cost of health or the budget, I could choose between a home diet of cereal, yogurt, ramen, and Soylent or constantly buying out lunch. So either my body deteriorates on a meatless, nutritionally questionable, synthetic diet, or I'm berated by boomers for buying coffee and avocado toast? Nah.
Meal prepping IS the answer, but how does one find the time? As I see it, there are two angles from which this problem can be tackled; either, create more time for cooking or reduce the time it takes to cook. Personally I'm still working on the first one; work life balance is obviously the bigger issue that is the root of the problem. Admittedly, I can't even imagine generalizing the procedure for time management across the multitudes of situations where it is "mismanaged" (maybe some people need calendars and watches while others need to practice multitasking while others need to win the lottery etc). Suggesting that strangers "create" time to cook is an unreliable and narcissistically unempathetic suggestion IN MY OPINION. The SECOND angle however, reducing the time it takes to cook, IS quite procedural and a more widely applicable solution. And so, what I propose is to provide a series of recipes for the tired, broke, and temporally constrained common person, starting with my personal favorite...CHICKEN ALA ROCKWELL.!
Chicken ala Rockwell isn't just a recipe, it's a process. It is the materialized concept of optimally balancing maximum yumminess with minimal effort and cost, thus empowering the individual to regain some control amidst the whirlpool of "the-system" related impediments. It is power, a lifestyle, baked chicken with potatoes, a symbol...and much more. So enough hype, how does one make Chicken ala Rockwell.
Ingredients
I'm going to be posting a bunch of recipes that require SEASONING, so for the few inexcusably uncultured swine that don't have a spice collection, START NOW. One shopping trip is all it takes to form a solid foundation of spices (which are universally elaborative tools of flavor expression).
Classic Chicken ala Rockwell spices
One of the perks of Chicken ala Rockwell is that the seasoning is quite flexible. Salt and pepper is really all you need for a well baked chicken breast (especially if you have a sauce or dish you are serving it with). However, for the purposes of THIS demonstration, I'll name the spices that I added. Finally, in this iteration of Chicken ala Rockwell, chicken and potatoes will be jointly baked. This is because we worship efficiency and multiplexing. So without further ado, the ingredients are:
Food Ingredients
boneless, skinless, chicken breast (~4 oz per serving)
potato (1 per serving)
olive oil (2 tablespoons)
salt
pepper
paprika (optional)
curry powder (optional)
red pepper flakes (optional)
other spices (optional)
Cooking Tools
baking pan
cutting board
knife
spatula (or something to pick up the chicken)
aluminum foil (optional, makes clean up easier to bake on foil instead of directly on pan)
Protocol
(I suggest reading this BEFORE executing it, then following it to a tee the FIRST time you do it, then after becoming a master, doing whatever you want)
1. Get into the mindset, wash and dry hands, start the timer: t = 0
Chicken ala Rockwell begins at conception. This is a race and a challenge of efficiency. Relish in the fact that there is only going to be 5 minutes of hands on time, BUT appreciate that there is idle time in between steps you can use to do other things (some things I like to do are: shower, watch a show, make tea, take my dog outside, read emails, etc). First succumb to the ritualization of the procedure, then, add your own twists of creativity. I've recently gone down the rabbit hole of recursive/hierarchical multitasking: what efficient procedures can I fit within this efficient procedure? Can I shower, and while showering can I listen to a podcast, and while listening to a podcast in the shower can I do pushups. But, it's important that you do you.
2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees (if ONLY baking chicken, skip to step 9): t = 5 seconds
3. Assemble ingredients and tools: t = 25 seconds
4. Cover baking sheet in foil and drizzle with one tablespoon of olive oil: t = 40 seconds
5. Rinse potato, then chop it into the desired shapes on the cutting board (I like home fry shaped cuts but sometimes I do steak fry shaped cuts): t = 80 seconds
6. Pour potatoes on baking sheet, swish them around in the oil, then stand them upright (with skin touching the baking sheet) and leave room for chicken breast on the baking sheet: t = 110 seconds
7. Put potatoes in oven and start a timer for 30 minutes (don't wait for the oven to preheat just put it in, a couple pieces fell over on their sides but I didn't fix them): t = 120 seconds
8. Wash and dry hands: t = 140 seconds
9. Put chicken on cutting board, drizzle one table spoon of olive oil on it, and lather the chicken with the oil: t = 170 seconds
10. Wash and dry hands: t = 190 seconds
11. Sprinkle spices (salt, pepper, paprika, curry powder, and red pepper) on both sides of chicken (start with bottom side, sprinkle, flip, and sprinkle): t=250 seconds
12. Wash and dry hands: t=270 seconds
13. Let chicken sit on cutting board until the 30 minute timer runs down: first idle period begins! (if you are JUST making chicken you can put it in the oven now for 20 minutes) During this ~25 minute idle period, I like to do some combination of cleaning, showering, taking care of Mochi, and relaxing. At this point in the procedure it was 6:45 am; when I started cooking it was 6:40 am. Keep in mind, I was trying to take pictures at each step and I was also busy with a few other things so I had to wash my hands quite a few more times :/ . Even so, I was able to "keep time" no problem so you can do it too! As I waited for the timer to run out, I cleaned up, took a few more pictures, made some tea, took Mochi outside to pee (while the kettle was heating up), then sat down in my living room answering emails and Slack messages while I watched Inside Job in the background.
14. After 30 minutes, put chicken in the oven adjacent to the potatoes on the baking sheet for an additional 20 minutes: t=280 seconds
And now, a second idle period commences...
15. FIN, take baking sheet out of oven and let Chicken ala Rockwell sit for a couple minutes.
The potatoes will be soft on the inside with crunchy skin, the chicken will be flavorful and juicy. This can be served immediately but I'm packing it for lunch. I'll only eat half the chicken and store the other half for later. I'm also throwing together a minimal salad (lettuce, pumpkin seeds and Pignolias) because why not!
So easy, so fast, so affordable, so yummy!
As a bonus pic, here is the result of the previous time I cooked Chicken ala Rockwell. Then, I cooked 4 pieces of chicken and did different spice combos for each piece.
Evaluation
We originally set out to tackle the issue of being able to cook something good and affordable given the time constraint of a very busy life. How did we do? Here is my personal rating of Chicken ala Rockwell.
Yumminess: 4/5
truly a scrumptious meal! I recommend a bit of salt and pepper for the potatoes and that's it.
Satisfaction: 5/5
this is a VERY filling meal and I don't even typically have the full serving of chicken.
Hands on Time: 4/5
my (harsh) rating scale is based on hands on times of less than or equal to: 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes, or 15 minutes (anything higher is a ZERO)
Cooking Time: 2/5
my rating scale is based cook times of less than or equal to: 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, or more than 1 hour
Cost: 4/5
my rating scale is based on per serving costs of less than or equal to: 2 dollars, 4 dollars, 6 dollars, 8 dollars, or 10 dollars (anything high is a ZERO)
cost is ~$1.75 for 4oz chicken breast + ~$.25 for spices + $.50 for 1 potato = ~$2.50 w/potatoes; ~$2.00 w/o potatoes
Calories: 530 w/potatoes (150 for 4oz chicken breast+ 130 for 1 potato + 250 for 2 tablespoons of oil); 275 w/o potatoes
Thanks for reading! Please report with feedback and suggestions. As a parting question to the readers, what are your favorite spice combination for baked chicken?! I'm itching to round out my spice and flavor collection!
-Rockwell
Finally the famous recipe is available to the masses!