While Eric worked on the water engineering side of our garden, I spent some serious pruning time on our citrus trees - meyer lemons, and valencia oranges. I picked a large bucket of citruses off both of our trees. I have been craving tall glasses of strawberry lemonade and freshly squeezed orange juice for some mimosas. I love seeing the beautiful hummingbirds fly into our garden and pecking away at the flowered fruits, it's nature's work right before us. I absolutely love having my garden - it's always helps and saves money to pick fresh citrus whenever you need it.
One dish that I knew to use up the meyer lemons was this chicken dish. Using a couple fresh ingredients (mostly from my garden), you can easily put this dinner together. Chicken is a staple menu item that I prepare at least once a week. I'm always trying to find new ways to enjoy it, whether it be grilled, baked, roasted, pan-fried, and even deep-fried. I hate chicken to be boring and bland and with the addition of fresh lemons - it's a nice balanced dish.
Fresh, fast and delicious.
Lemon Chicken BreastsAdapted from Barefoot Contessa’s - How Easy is That
Printable Recipe
Ingredients: 4 boneless chicken breasts, skin on (6 to 8 ounces each)
1 lemon
¼ cup good quality olive oil
⅓ cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
2 teaspoons fresh oregano
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves
Kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
In a small saucepan, warm the olive oil over low heat, and add the garlic and let it cook for 1 minute. Do not brown the garlic. Remove from heat, add the white wine, lemon zest, oregano, thyme and 1 teaspoon salt. Mix to combine and pour into a 9 x 13 baking dish.
Rinse and pat down the chicken breasts dry and place them skin side up in the baking dish. Drizzle additional olive oil on top and season with salt and pepper. Cut the lemon into wedges and scatter them in the dish.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the chicken skin has lightly browned and chicken is no longer pink. If chicken skin has not browned, place under the broiler for 3 to 5 minutes. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and let it rest for 10 minutes before serving.
Recommend to serve with basmati rice and green beans and a spoonful of pan juices over the chicken.
Review: As Ina would say, “How easy is that!” The juicy chicken is infused with garlic, thyme and oregano and fresh zest of the lemon. It’s moist and oh-so flavorful. We worked our butts off this weekend and are hoping our sustainable little garden will produce a bountiful harvest. Now I got to squeeze those oranges for those tasty mimosas that I adore.
