Per the numbers guy request, I played a bit with this recipe:
The general concept is roasting chicken on top of potatoes, which is a solid foundation. I did my first attempt mostly as written. I did not like a few things and recommend modifications. Things I didn’t like:
temperature is too low to get the skin crispy
too few potatoes relative to chicken
not enough flavor
too greasy
I don’t care for garlic paste/prepared garlic. The citric acid tang is off putting, and it’s easy enough to mince garlic.
Text calls for a little olive oil, but it’s missing from the instructions.
Smoked paprika in addition to the blackening spice was too much of the same note
I eyeballed this tonight rather than making specific measurements. If anyone wants to test it, feedback is appreciated. What I did:
Increased temperature, decreased cook time
Doubled potatoes
Tripled blackening spice
Cut mayo in half
no added oil
Added dijon
Used minced garlic in bigger quantity
Substitute regular paprika for smoked paprika
My modified instructions follow.
Make a paste of the following items in a big bowl
1 teaspoon salt
2.5 teaspoons blackening seasoning
1 teaspoon paprika
3-4 cloves minced garlic. Hard to do too much. I’d guess 1 tablespoon this time
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan
1/4 cup mayo
1/4 cup dijon
Cut 1 pound of yukon gold or similar taters into relatively uniform sizes. I cut the smaller ones into 4ths, and bigger ones into 6ths
Toss taters and 4 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs in the paste in the big bowl until coated
Arrange the taters in the bottom of a rectangular baking dish, and place the thighs on top
Sprinkle tops of thighs with another 1/2 teaspoon of blackening spice
Preheat oven to 425
Bake for 40-45 minutes, then pull to test. Taste a potato, and check temp of chicken. Probably needs to go a full hour.
After it’s done, zest one lemon and sprinkle zest over chicken. Top with some minced parsley. serves 4.
I’ll continue to experiment with the format/flavors/proportions. I made the blackening seasoning from another recipe that I can find if you are interested.
ETA: I used reduced fat mayo both times because it’s what was on hand. Either way, recipe was too greasy as written even with that modification