TLDR: What you need to know

• Follow this process to make a delicious, healthy meal with chicken thighs and cauliflower (or broccoli).
• This process is great for learning how to cook because it is hard to mess up.
• I make it at least 1x a week.

Ray's Take

Make this chicken recipe.

It's a great meal for beginner and advanced cooks.

It's easy, hard to F up, and really good.

When I am home alone I make this recipe like 75% of the days to eat myself for dinner.

It's also a really good way to learn the Ray Wu method of cooking
- no recipes
- know fundamentals
- taste your food
- improve next time

What you'll need

Equipment
- an oven
- 2 baking sheets
- tin foil

Food
- chicken legs or thighs
- cauliflower florets (broccoli works too)

Oil/Seasoning
- olive oil or avocado oil (spray works too)
- salt

Extra
- a sauce

Step 1

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
NOTE - most people and most recipes cook at way too low of temperature. We'll fix that.
NOTE 2 - preheating matters

Step 2

Put tin foil on your 2 baking sheets.

Step 3

Put your raw chicken on one of the baking sheets and drizzle with olive oil or avocado oil. Make sure to get oil on both the bottom and the top.

NOTE - how much oil should you add? Honestly, it doesn't really matter. For today, let's start with the minimum amount that it takes to barely fully cover the bottom and the top of the chicken. Don't measure this out. Just go off of feel. You can use tongs (or your hand) to move the chicken around so the oil spreads evenly (optional).

Raw chicken on baking sheet

Step 4

Take your cauliflower, and put it on the other baking sheet. Again, drizzle your oil on top and use tongs or your hand to move the cauliflower around in the oil.

NOTE - how much oil should you add? Again, go off of feel. Use the minimum amount so that all of the pieces of cauliflower have a thin coating of oil

Step 5

After your oven is preheated (you'll know bc a digital oven will ding or show the temperature, or if you don't have digital, just let it preheat for 15 min), place the chicken on a lower rack, and the cauliflower on a higher rack.

NOTE - the reason you do this is on the bake setting, heat comes from below. You want the chicken to get the higher heat so thats why its on the lower rack.

Step 6

Wait.

How long should you cook the chicken and cauliflower? Honestly, it depends.

It depends on your oven. It depends how you like it done.

In other words, cook it as long as you want. (The only caveat is the chicken needs to be fully cooked).

I'd guess to let it cook for 30 minutes.

NOTE - why did we start with chicken thighs? It's really hard to overcook! IE you can leave it in for a really long time and it will stay juicy and delicious. This is not true for chicken breast.

Step 7a

So how do you know the chicken is done?

Look at it, and when the chicken is brown on the outside, and appears to be cooked through, its probably done. For this dish, i'd leave it in until you are very sure its browned. (I like my chicken thigh more fully cooked anyways).

It should look like this:

Step 7b

How do you know the cauliflower is done?

Similar to the chicken, its brown and charred on the outside.

NOTE - you can burn cauliflower if you leave it in too long, so i often take my cauliflower out first. You can start checking after 20-30 min or so

It should look like this:

Step 8

Take your chicken and cauliflower out of the oven.

Use tongs or a fork to place your chicken and cauliflower on a plate

Now its time to start learning.....

Step 9

Sprinkle salt on your chicken and cauliflower.

How much? Less than you think you need to add.

Then taste it. If it tastes good, you're good. If it tastes bland, add more salt.

The trick here is its harder to take salt out if you add too much, which is why you always start with less.

We're not done though.

How is the chicken?

Is it chewy? That means you need to cook it longer.

Is it dry? That means you cooked it for too long.

Is it perfect? Then you nailed it.

Remember how you cooked it, and adjust it next time. And don't worry if you don't keep track exactly, you'll have unlimited tries on this.

Step 10

After you have taken your mental notes and added enough salt that the chicken and cauliflower taste good, just enjoy the rest of it for your meal.

Eat the chicken and cauli with a sauce (hummus, guac, salsa, mayo, ranch, bbq sauce), that preferably has low sugar added.

You can add a small side salad too!

Step 11 - important

Think.

What went well?

What didn't go well?

Take mental notes on how to improve next time.

Also, if you have leftovers, store it the right way [full process]. In short, put the cooked food directly into a container. DO NOT eat directly from the container. Every time you eat, you must take the food out of the container with clean hands or utensils (not utensils that have touched your mouth). This makes the food last at least a week in the fridge.

FAQs

What do you eat the chicken and cauliflower with?
Simple, homemade, guac is my fav [link]. You can have guac, hummus, baba ganouj, salsa, etc. Trader Joe's and whole foods have a lot of good sauces if you just want to buy. Just make sure no sugar added.

Do you use convection bake or regular bake?
I use convention - it cooks faster and more evenly. All convection means is the oven fan is turned on while the oven is on. The temperature is automatically lowered for you by 25 degrees (usually) on convection bake.

Does the exact oven temperature matter for this recipe?
No.

Will every oven cook the same?
No.

Do I need to flip the chicken?
No. But you can if you want.

How do i figure out the best temperature and time for my oven?
Start with 400 degrees for 30 min and then taste your food. Improve next time.

The chicken wasn't tender?
Cook it longer.

The chicken was dry?
You cooked it too long.

The chicken doesn't have enough flavor?
Add salt. You can also add garlic powder (i love), onion powder, red peppers or black pepper (I'm not a huge fan so i skip but other ppl like it).

The cauliflower isn't good?
You cooked it wrong. If you cook it right it is literally better than a baked potato.

The cauliflower isn't crispy on the outside and tender and soft on the inside?
Try adding more oil when you coat it

The cauliflower is burnt?
You cooked it too long or too hot. I find keeping the temperature the same but covering the top with foil helps this. I'd try this as step 1 if you get this error.

The cauliflower is too crunchy?
Cook it longer. Try adding more oil when you coat it and covering with foil on top to avoid burning.

The cauliflower doesn't have flavor?
Add salt, garlic powder, pepper to taste.