Sweet & Spicy Chicken Drumettes and Roasted Garlic Whipped Potatoes

For most items that I make, I gather inspiration from others. Tonight for dinner, I made Sweet & Spicy Chicken Drumettes, inspired by Giada as I was watching my daily dose of Giada at Home on Food Network. The final product made my mouth water and I promptly decided that I had a menu plan for dinner. As a side, I decided to make the Roasted Garlic Whipped Potatoes that I read about a couple of months ago on Gretchen's blog (a favorite of mine). With the promise of an amazing side without the need for butter, I jumped on board!

Sweet & Spicy Chicken Drumettes

*adapted from FoodNetwork.com

Ingredients:

3/4 cup pineapple juice

1/3 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce

1/4 cup sweet Marsala wine

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp paprika

1 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

3 pounds chicken drumettes

Vegetable Oil cooking spray

Salt

1 tbp cornstarch

Directions:

In a medium bowl, whisk together the pineapple juice, soy sauce, Marsala wine, brown sugar, vegetable oil, garlic, paprika and red pepper flakes until the sugar is dissolved. Put the chicken drumettes in a resealable plastic bag. Add the marinade to the chicken and seal the bag, removing as much air as possible. Marinate the chicken for 3 hours in the refrigerator.

Put an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray it liberally with the vegetable cooking spray.

Remove the chicken from the marinade and arrange in a single layer on the baking sheet. Season the chicken with salt and bake until the skin is caramelized and very dark in spots, about 30-35 minutes.

Meanwhile, put the remaining marinade in a small saucepan. Whisk in the cornstarch and bring to a boil over medium heat (in order to kill bacteria from the raw chicken). Reduce the heat to a low boil and cook until thick, about 5 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes.

Once the chicken is done cooking, use a pastry brush to brush some of the cooked marinade over the chicken or pour it into a small bowl and serve on the side.

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Next, it was time to start on the whipped potatoes. Ever since I received a stand mixer for Christmas from my boyfriend, Mike, I have been dying to make whipped potatoes using my new machine.

Roasted Garlic Whipped Potatoes

*from Honey, I Shrunk the Gretchen blog

Ingredients: 

10 red potatoes, peeled

8 garlic cloves, peeled

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, for roasting (1 tbsp used in recipe)

Salt and pepper to taste

1-2 tbsp heavy cream (optional)

Directions:

Place potatoes in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are completely soft. 

While the potatoes are cooking, heat the olive oil in a small pan over medium heat. Add peeled garlic cloves until oil begins to softly bubble. Reduce heat to very low and "roast" cloves until they are browned and soft. Remove from heat, set aside cloves and 1 tablespoon of oil, and save the rest of the garlic-infused oil for other uses. 

Once the potatoes are done, drain the water and return to the pot. Add the heavy cream, if you are using, then whip together using an electric hand mixer, potato masher, or stand mixer.

Mash together soft garlic cloves with a fork, then add them plus the olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix together well. Garnish with what you so choose.

***

I have to admit that I was pretty hesitant to believe that whipped potatoes could be this amazing without copious amounts of butter. But, the garlic-infused oil made the potatoes so moist and flavorful (and, I admit, I used all of the oil in my potatoes instead of just the 1 tablespoon- the oil was that amazing). Thank you to Gretchen for permitting me to share your recipe here!

Do you have any different ways of making mashed or whipped potatoes?