Foodie Corner
carol cassara
We’re not sure whether our friend Carol Cassara is a fly by the seat of her pants kind of gal, but she did come up with this simple chicken recipe awfully speedily. It’s tasty and simple. Perfect for dinner on those days when you haven’t got much prep time…you know, those days when you’re flying by the seat of your pants.
Walking Riley the other day, I caught a glimpse of one of our lemon trees, heavy with fruit. Oh, the taste of a lemon right off the tree! I asked M to pick a few and decided to make a healthy lemon chicken. And it was scrumptious. So here you go: try it!
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Find a rectangular baking dish that will hold four chicken breasts. Spray with with cooking spray. I like to line it with aluminum foil, first.
carol cassara
This here picture of a fire-breathing chicken appears because raw chicken breasts are ugly and photos of live chickens make me want to turn vegetarian. So get out four chicken breasts, not frozen of course. Thaw them. Or, if you live on a farm, slaughter a few chickens. I’ll leave the rest of the dead chicken prep to you.
carol cassara
Get out a small frying pan. Add a couple tablespoons of oregano to 1/4 cup of olive oil in the pan. Don’t turn it on yet! It’s the oregano that makes this dish so tasty, so don’t skimp! I used dried, but fresh is great.
carol cassara
Add maybe a teaspoon of thyme. I mean, I made all this up, so season to taste. I did not salt or pepper; no need.
Garlic: 3-4 garlic cloves, minced. Or the equivalent. Yep, into the pan they go!
carol cassara
How about some white wine?
carol cassara
No? Then chicken broth.
carol cassara
Start with half a cup of either. Or even both.
And wait–didn’t I say it was LEMON chicken? Squeeze two lemons and pour their juice into the pan. Without their seeds. Stir and heat all up in the pan for a bit. Till it’s nice and warm and the garlic aromatic. Stir it well.
Pour the heated lemon-herb etc. mixture over the chicken.
Pop the baking dish of chicken in the 400 degree oven for about 25 minutes. The breasts should be tender and juicy. If not, cook a couple more minutes till they are done. You’ve made chicken a zillion times, you can do this.
Oh, this dish is yummy! I served it with Brussels sprouts, corn and cauliflower.
My husband gave it a 4.5 on a 5 point scale. He’s a strict grader, though. He says that he’s had very perfect 5 meals in his life.