How to Roast Chicken Legs With No Antibiotics

Almost everybody loves chicken. And those who love it have their favorite way to prepare it or eat it. Whether chicken is fried, stewed, baked, grilled, or roasted, the succulent taste and juiciness of a piece of chicken will always satisfy the chicken lover's taste buds.

However, most chicken sold in supermarkets are full of chemicals, salts, antibiotics, and hormones. From a nutritional perspective, that would seem to cancel out the "great taste" of chicken our palates long for and savor.

When was the last time you ate a piece of all natural, antibiotic-free, hormone-free, or even organic chicken? You would be surprised at the difference in flavor, taste, and consistency.

Because we've been conditioned to consume the lower grade of chicken sold from huge grocery store bins and fast food restaurants, we forget how chicken is supposed to taste. Over the last few years, as I've made healthier eating a priority, I've rediscovered the natural taste of chicken. The actual flavor of chicken comes through without a lot of additives and chemicals. The video at the end of this article explains why pasteurized poultry is healthier and better for us.

More and more poultry producers, like Perdue, are raising chickens on vegetable diets and have drastically cut the use of hormones and antibiotics. Even McDonald's has recently decided to phase in the use of antibiotic-free chicken for their food products over the next two years.

Some extreme health enthusiasts would say avoid eating chicken altogether. But I'm not quite ready to give it up as long as I choose to eat and cook with the healthier, minimally processed, all natural choices offered in grocery stores.

One of my favorite brands of antibiotic-free chicken (Bell & Evans) is found at a neighborhood organic market. I purchase packages of wings, breasts, drumsticks, and whole legs for my healthier cooking needs. My recipe for Roasted Chicken Legs renders better flavor than the chicken that is full of that "15%" salty saline solution and hormones.

The growth hormones also cause the chicken to be over-sized. Chicken pieces without these hormones are smaller and look closer to normal in size. Since there aren't a lot of additives, I find that the all natural chicken tends to need a little more seasoning, which is why the savory blend used in this recipe works very well. If you use salt, add a little sea salt to this recipe.

• Large covered roasting pan
• Large mixing bowl
• Sharp paring knife for cutting off excess fat
• Pam Cooking Spray
• "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" Spray