“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade . . . or lemon Greek chicken!
On the days I teach clinicals, I need something quick and easy for dinner. I really do not like fast food or take-out. I just feel better when I eat clean and cooking for me is a pleasurable past time, not a chore. I bought lemons the other day at Aldi’s and let me tell you for $2 and some change, I got a bag of 8 lemons that were HUGE. Mutantly large even. That was Sunday and I made Shrimp Scampi Linguine for dinner. That left 7 lemons.
What to do? Of course . . . Lemon Greek Chicken. One pan meal. Inexpensive. Fresh vegetables. Chicken Thighs.
Lemon Greek Chicken
Ingredients
4# of bone-in chicken thighs with skin (about 8)1.5 # Baby potatoes
1 large red onion
8 oz. white mushrooms whole
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil
1 t. black pepper
1 t. rosemary
1 t. paprika
1 T. oregano
1 T. salt
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 c. chicken broth
Directions
Preheat oven to 400. Halve potatoes. Quarter red onion. Wash and stem mushrooms, slicing caps in half. Place all vegetables in the roasting pan. Rinse chicken breasts and place on top of vegetables, skin side up. In a mixing bowl combine lemon juice, olive oil, pepper, rosemary, paprika, oregano, salt, minced garlic and 2/3 c. of the chicken broth. Whisk and pour over the chicken and vegetables. Bake, uncovered for 20 minutes. Add remaining 1/3 cup of chicken broth and baste with juices, stirring vegetables. Bake an additional 25 minutes.
As I said previously, I prefer to use as many fresh ingredients as possible. I buy fresh garlic and mince it myself, same with the rosemary and oregano if it’s available. As far as the chicken broth, when I cook a rotisserie chicken in the crockpot, I put the giblets, skin and bones back in the crockpot with about 8 cups of water and cook it on low overnight. It produces the richest and most flavorful chicken broth – superior to anything you can buy in the store.
The taste was wonderful, despite the fact that I can hardly chew due to an abscessed tooth. The look of pleasure and comments of satisfaction from my husband was all the compliment I needed. Even the dogs got a bit of the juices mixed in with their dog food and scarfed it right down.
Mudd Street Chronicles 