Chicken-a-torie

Finally, back again with a new recipe! I just made it last night and got rave reviews...from Les and Patrick...amazing. Anyway, I had bought some cheap chicken legs..four HUGE leg quarters for $3.58...and I wanted to do something other than just bake or fry them. I rooted around in my pantry and found a bag of Ragu pasta sauce and some canned tomatoes and voila! My dish was born. Hope you like it!

Ingredients

4 Chicken Leg Quarters
1 pouch Ragu pasta sauce
1/2 can diced tomatoes
2 medium onions, cut into large chunks
1 8 oz. pkg sliced mushrooms
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Garlic powder
Sugar
Rice
Butter

A note about the ingredients...you could use any pieces of chicken. This was just what I had on hand. The pasta sauce was a garden vegetable variety, no meat. I thought it might have been good to use stewed tomatoes, but I didn't have any so I just used plain. I also thought about adding green peppers to the mix, but again, didn't have any. If you use them, add them in with the onions.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an oblong casserole dish with foil and spray with Pam.
2. If using leg quarters, cut them into drumsticks and thighs. Salt and pepper all sides and sprinkle with garlic powder. Lay them skin side up in the casserole dish.
3. Put chicken into oven and cook for 1 hour.
4. While chicken is cooking, pour about 1 T olive oil into a saucepan with lid. Cook the onions in the oil for about 2 minutes. Add pasta sauce and tomatoes with a little juice from can. Stir in about a teaspoon of sugar. Taste to see if it needs salt. Let simmer for about 10 minutes.
5. During the last 20 minutes of cooking the chicken, pour the pasta sauce into the chicken dish, mixing it up with the chicken and chicken juices. Stir in the mushrooms and put back in the oven for the final 20 minutes.
6. Cook the rice while the chicken finishes cooking. White rice is cooked by using 2 parts liquid to 1 part rice. Bring salted water to a boil, add rice, stir, turn down to low and immediately put the lid on. Stir only once during the cooking process and cook for 20 minutes. Add the butter at the end and stir all together.
7. To serve, spoon the sauce over the rice...yum!