Skillet-Roasted Lemon Chicken

The weather is trying to be Spring but it's still chilly so an oven baked chicken recipe sounded good to me tonight. Bruce wanted to barbecue but it just didn't feel like barbecue weather. We did barbecue chicken recently but that was really pushing it. I made this recipe from Ina Garten where she's posting recipes easy to make from your current kitchen pantry. I had all these ingredients so it made for a wonderful Sunday dinner. This recipe is from her cookbook Cooking for Jeffrey, known as the luckiest husband in the world. LOL I should write a cookbook called Cooking for Bruce. He feels lucky to be able to eat all the recipes I cook but he helps a lot, too, like this Dutch baby we had for breakfast today. Perfection.

We have frozen blueberries in the freezer and fresh squeezed lemon along with warm syrup - one of our favorite breakfasts. As much as we love Dutch babies for a weekend breakfast, we also love having a really good chicken dinner on Sundays. I was saving this Ina Garten recipe and decided this weekend was a good time to try it. I had a package of cut-up chicken in the freezer so that's what I used. And, you know, in these days of self-quarantine, we just use whatever we have on hand. We are getting use to it after four weeks since our "stay-at-home" orders from the governor. We actually had two visitors come over this week, my sister and her husband, who sat out on the deck as we kept our six feet apart. Lauren also came over one evening so I could give her some herb seeds that she wanted to start growing on her window sill, as we are.

We are still seeing people and I even went for a nice walk around the neighborhood with my neighbor friend on Saturday while we wore our masks and kept our distance. Life is not too terribly horrible for us but like I said before, we have a pretty low-key life, even before the Coronavirus happened. It is weird not having any baseball or any sports on T.V. I think Bruce is missing our normal life more than I am. I have lots to do around the house to keep me busy, lots of recipes to try...I'm glad I tried this one tonight.

Serves 4-6
2 tsp. fresh thyme leaves
1 tsp. whole fennel seeds
kosher salt and freshly ground black peppe
1/3 cup olive oil
1 lemon, halved and sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 yellow onion, halved and sliced 1/4 inch slices
2 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 (4-pound) chicken, backbone removed and butterflied or a package of cut-up chicken
1/2 cup dry white wine, such as Pinot Grigio
juice of one lemon

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

2. Place the thyme, fennel seeds, 1 Tbsp. salt and 1 tsp. pepper in a mini food processor and process until ground.

3. Pour the olive oil into a small glass measuring cup, stir in the herb mixture, and set aside.

4. Distribute the lemon slices in a 12-inch cast-iron skillet.

5. Distribute the onion and garlic on top of the lemon.

6. Place the chicken, skin-side down, on top of the onion and brush with about half of the oil and herb mixture.

7. Turn the chicken skin side up, pat it dry with a paper towels (very important!).

8. Brush chicken again all over with the rest of the oil and herb mixture.

9. Roast the chicken for 30 minutes. Pour the wine into the pan (not on the chicken!) and roast for another 10-15 minutes, until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the breast registers 155-160 degrees.

10. Remove the chicken from the oven, sprinkle it with the lemon juice, cover the skillet tightly with aluminum foil, and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes.

11. Cut the chicken into quarter or eighths, sprinkle with salt, and serve hot with the pan juices, cooked lemon, and onion.

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Sylvia's Scenario

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