Posted April 19, 2025.
This is my Uncle Zach’s recipe that he has been making for years and is definitely my favorite chicken recipe. We are doing this recipe since we are going to reduce some of the roosters soon, because we have too many right now for our flock. and some are just being mean to our ladies. So, we need to cull a few of them, especially since we are going to have baby chicks in a few days (maybe even by the time this recipe comes out). We want to have those chicks be safe! They’re pretty much tiny balls of fluff for the first month. They can’t really protect themselves from the rooster that is over a foot tall.
Right now, we have about 40 chickens and should get about 10-18 more baby chicks soon. And a bit later this year maybe a couple more to raise with our turkeys since turkeys are so hard to hatch! When I say that I am not exaggerating pretty much anything can kill these guys when they’re little even if you just look at them the wrong way. They are a really hardy and reliable bird once they’re alive and like two months old. But before that, they are so vulnerable, they sometimes forget to drink water. Two years ago, we hatched about four turkeys (we put in dozens of eggs but only got like four chicks). And only one of those turkeys survived into adulthood. She is the sweetest little thing, but she was so hard to keep alive. I think she only survived because we had a bunch of baby chickens to live with her when she was a baby.
With all of these animals, we all have to help with them, like checking on them a couple times a day to feed or water, or even just washing eggs when they come in. I really like heading up to the barn with my eggpron (egg apron) and bringing back a dozen eggs to make into bread later. I do love all of our birds, including the roosters and they will be missed on our farm. I am also going to enjoy them very much when we have them for dinner as soup this winter. They were loved, they were taken care of, and now they are going to be a delicious dinner!
This recipe is not exact since my Uncle doesn’t use an exact recipe when cooking this and mostly eyeballs it. To be fair, I do the same thing when cooking most of the time unless I have an exact recipe, I have to follow like for cookies or bread. This recipe is pretty close to what he cooks though and turned out to be a close second! For the ingredients I listed what we used and about what they have in them so with that, go wild on your seasoning.
I hope you enjoy this recipe and have a great Easter. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
- Chicken (you can use any part of the chicken; I think the breast is the best and is what I used)
- 1 teaspoon of mesquite seasoning
- 1 teaspoon Brazilian steakhouses seasoning (red chili, salt, black pepper, onion)
- Roasted garlic and herbs (salt, onion, basil, paprika, dill)
- Olive oil (about 1 tablespoon per chicken breast or ½ tablespoon per thigh)
Instructions:
- Mix together the oil and spices in a baking dish. You want this dish big enough for all your chicken and with enough room so that you can flip the chicken. Once that’s done, you can just let the chicken sit and marinate in that until the oven is preheated.
- Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees F. Once the oven is preheated, cook the chicken for 15-20 minutes, checking it 5-10 minutes at a time. You will want to flip the chicken every 5 to 10 minutes so it cooks evenly and all the way through. Plus, it keeps all that yummy seasoning on the chicken!
- Once cooked, this chicken is great with rice or in a burrito. My favorite way to eat this is to have it plain and then add some broccoli or something from our greenhouse or garden. This time we had some fresh asparagus, the first of the season!
