Yogurt Lemon Garlic Drumsticks

No specific recipe for this, just inspired by an article about zest versus juice. Maybe I can make chicken drumsticks as lemony and garlicky as the ones my Mom used to make.

Wrap a one gallon ziplock bag around a bowl so it will stay open while sitting on a scale.

Add 90 grams of plain whole milk yogurt (I stopped at 90 because it looked like a big enough blob).

Add 1 tablespoon of garlic salt.

Add the zest and juice from one lemon.

Take bag off bowl and squish ingredients around in bottom to get them mixed.

Add 5 chicken legs (that's how many were in the package I got which weighed 1.9 lb).

Seal bag and squish around more to get the legs all covered.

Put in fridge for about 24 hours.

The next day...

Sprayed some oil on a disposable aluminum pan and arranged the drumsticks (not 24 hours, about 21 hours in the fridge):

Preheated the oven to 400 degrees, set the temp alarm to 165 (with the probe in the biggest drumstick). Popped it in the oven at 10:27 AM. I'll see how long it takes for the alarm to sound...

The alarm went off at 11:04 AM and checking the temps in the other pieces showed they were all at or above 165, so I grabbed a couple to have for lunch.

It is very lemony and garlicky. I definitely think the zest upped the lemon flavor more than just the juice I've tried before (though I've never done exactly this recipe before). If I make this again, I may actually need a bit more garlic powder as it wasn't as garlicky as it was lemony :-).

Also important: It wasn't dried out, it was very juicy and tender. All in all, a pretty good chicken dish. (And the disposable pan didn't leak so no cleanup was required).

Next try: I was looking for chicken thighs, but they were out, so I got a package of big old chicken breasts. I chopped them into about 1.5" thick medallions to get lots more chicken surface area exposed to the marinade.

I did the same marinade as last time, but added some ingredients: an extra teaspoon of garlic powder (not garlic salt). A teaspoon of onion powder, and a teaspoon of sumac (which is often described as lemony, so why not).

Dumped in the cut up breasts, squished it around, and put it in the fridge till tomorrow.

Tomorrow has come and the chunks of breast are now on the rack (and all pink from the sumac I added) and ready to go in a 450 degree oven:

Shouldn't take long to hit 165 degrees in small pieces like that.

It did not take long, and cutting it into chunks did seem to enhance the effect of the marinade. These are very lemony and garlicky, which is what I was trying to achieve. Not sure what I may do with them. Maybe just eat them one at a time as snacks, or maybe cook some veggies to make a meal.

The sumac contributed pinkness to the final product:

I think the breasts were better than the legs, but I imagine thighs would have been even better if I had been able to get some (maybe next time).

The aluminum foil didn't leak, and I sprayed the rack with oil before putting on the chicken, so it cleaned up very easily.