Pan-Fried Chicken Quarters

Every time when I visit a Costco store, I buy two whole chickens.  They are usually 99 cents per pound, which is a superb deal.  Upon butchering the chickens, I make stock with the carcasses and this dish.  This dish is quite easy to make and when deglazing the pan, you can make different sauces depending on what you feel like for the meal.

The Recipe

The Skillet

A 10" cast iron skillet.

Ingredients

  • Chicken quarters, deboned.  I usually butcher two chickens and get four quarters.  You can cook as many chicken quarters as you want.  Deboned legs and thighs work well too.
  • Salt
  • Black pepper
  • Shallots
  • Garlic
  • Green Onions
  • Slices of ginger
  • Any spices of your choice

Instructions

  1. Add a bit of oil, no more than a teaspoon, into a well-seasoned cast iron skillet.
  2. Pan-fry the chicken quarters.  Start with the skin side down.  I usually start with one first so the rendered oil covers the whole pan.  After that, place as many quarters in as possible.  Cook them quarters through.
  3. While searing the chicken quarters, season both sides with some salt and pepper, just like how it is when you sear a steak.
  4. After all the quarters are cooked through, remove excessive oil from the skillet if you want.  Add the slices of ginger into the pan.  Ginger goes in first because compared shallots, garlic, green onions, ginger can and should be cooked for longer so its fragrant comes out a bit more.
  5. Add shallots, garlic, and the white part of the green onions.  You don't need to chop these ingredients too thin at all.  They can stay bulky.  Just cook them down a bit.
  6. Finally, add the green part of the green onions.
  7. Taste it a bit to see if you want to add more salt or other spices.  You can season it however you want.  Be creative.  Try something different every time.
  8. Depending on how runny you want the sauce to be, deglaze the pan with 1/2 - 1 cup of water.  Cook it down a bit to make sure the ingredients mix well.
  9. Pour the sauce on the plated chicken quarters.





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