If lemon is a flavor you like, these chicken breasts will put you in lemon nirvana! This is a quick and easy baked chicken dish (you don’t even have to brown them first) that’s even worthy of a company meal.
Don’t you have nights when you need to get dinner on the table in a big-fat hurry? Even though I enjoy cooking most of the time, there are days when I just don’t seem to get myself into the kitchen until about 5:30 or so and realize we need to be out of the house in an hour. So, with lemons still loading down our Meyer lemon trees, I quick-like went in search of a lemon chicken recipe. Going to Eat Your Books, I looked at their list, scanning about 30 or more recipes amongst my cookbooks (which lists the main ingredients) before I found a simple and quick recipe that I thought sounded really good. It came from Ina Garten’s book Barefoot Contessa How Easy Is That?
Reading through the recipe completely I heated the oil, added the garlic and just let it mellow in there for a minute. Off the heat I added the dry white wine, lemon juice and lemon zest, oregano and thyme. The chicken breasts I used were skinless (that’s all I had), and I think breasts with skin would definitely be better (because it would protect the top from over baking), but when you’re in a hurry you don’t quibble over chicken skin. I did pound the chicken slightly. While I worked on the rest of my meal, I let the chicken just marinate in that stuff for about 20 minutes. Also waited for the oven to heat up. I made this for 2 servings, so I had part of a lemon which was cut into wedges and snuggled in with the chicken pieces. I checked the chicken early – good thing – as the chicken was done in about 25 minutes. I probably could have removed it at 20 minutes. The recipe indicates to tent with foil once you take it out of the oven and let it sit for 10 minutes. During that time the temp will rise about 5-10 degrees, so you DO want to take it out early.
I suppose professional chefs just know the finished temperature of cooked chicken. Because the chicken was just slightly overcooked, I thought, I needed to research this. Today I went on the ‘net and read several websites, just because I wanted to know. The USDA has apparently recently put out there that chicken breasts need to be cooked to 165°. And especially if you have any health or immune system issues, you’d want to make sure it’s cooked sufficiently. It used to be higher, but in recent years they reduced the temp to 160° and now changed it to 165°. SO, if I were making this again, I’d bake it to exactly 160° and take it out of the oven then. And tent it for 5-10 minutes before serving. Here’s what I found at one website:
Many experts recommend that chicken breast meat must be cooked to an internal temperature of 170 degrees F, but others say 160 degrees F is fine. You will have moister chicken if you cook to 160 degrees F. According to Dr. O. Peter Snyder, the chicken has to reach a temperature of 160 degrees F for 5.2 seconds to kill pathogens. Now the USDA is recommending that, because of bird flu fears, chicken should be cooked to a temperature of 165 degrees F. Remember that the meat will continue to cook after it’s removed from the heat; the internal temperature will rise about 5-10 degrees in the first few minutes it’s off the heat.
Now – once it was baked – it looked really nice – just a bit golden brown. I sprinkled just a little bit of grated Parm on top (because I’d made some risotto where I needed it anyway) and garnished it with one sprig of fresh thyme and a wedge of the cooked (and mellowed) lemon. My DH ate all of the lemon, peel and all. What I DID do, though, was spoon the pan juices into tiny little ramekins (not in the picture, because I did it afterwards) and put those on our plates. With each bite of chicken, we dipped it into the jus. It was good. I liked the chicken a lot – but I might reduce the temp by 25° next time. And, I would be very precise about removing the chicken when it reaches 160°, so I’d want to use a probe in the chicken.
What I liked: the very lemony chicken flavor. Loved dipping the chicken into the ramekin of jus. Liked how easy it was to make – with fresh thyme in my garden, and lemons on our trees, I’ll almost always be able to make this. I think the addition of lemon zest was an important step – it just steps up the lemony-ness. Thank you, Ina.
What I didn’t like: not much of anything – I’d be very careful about cooking it JUST to 160°. And if I had chicken breasts with skin, I’d use them. I usually don’t, however.
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Lemon Chicken Breasts
Recipe By: Ina Garten, How Easy is That?
Serving Size: 4
NOTES: The nutrition info assumes you’ll eat the skin. If you don’t, the fat and calorie numbers will go down significantly. Mostly the chicken skin is kept on to protect the chicken from drying out.
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons minced garlic — (9 cloves)
1/3 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon lemon zest — (2 lemons)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 chicken breast halves — skin on (6 to 8 ounces each)
1 whole lemon
1. Preheat the oven to 400°. [My suggestion: try 375° instead and definitely use a probe-in thermometer.]
2. Warm the olive oil in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, add the garlic, and cook for just 1 minute but don’t allow the garlic to turn brown. Off the heat, add the white wine, lemon zest, lemon juice, oregano, thyme, and 1 teaspoon salt and pour into a 9 by 12-inch baking dish.
3. Pat the chicken breasts dry and place them skin side up over the sauce. Brush the chicken breasts with olive oil and sprinkle them liberally with salt and pepper. Cut the lemon in 8 wedges and tuck it among the pieces of chicken.
4. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken breasts, until the chicken is done and the skin is lightly browned. The internal temperature should be about 160° Once removed from the oven, it will continue to cook and will rise in temp about 5-10 degrees. If the chicken isn’t browned enough, put it under the broiler for 2 minutes. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and serve hot with the pan juices. [My suggestion: there is a lot of lemony juice in the bottom of the baking dish – spoon it out into individual mini-ramekins and serve alongside the chicken and invite your diners to dip each piece of chicken into the jus before eating.]
Per Serving: 399 Calories; 27g Fat (62.8% calories from fat); 31g Protein; 5g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 93mg Cholesterol; 94mg Sodium.
hddonna
said on May 7th, 2012:
This looks like just the recipe I was looking for to use the two chicken breasts in the fridge tht need to cooked tonight. How clever of you to serve the juices in ramekins for dipping! I wonder if it would work to lay a piece of parchment, cut to fit loosely inside the dish, over the skinless chicken breasts for part of the cooking time to help keep them from drying out. I’ve done this with fish with good results. If browning is desired, one could leave it on for perhaps half the time, and there’s always the broiler, as you suggested, if needed.
hddonna
said on May 7th, 2012:
Well, I made these for supper and they were delicious. Because my chicken breasts were large, I cut them in half to make two thinner cutlets. They only took 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven to reach 260 degrees (my oven bakes slow, so I didn’t lower the temp to 375 as you suggested). I did put parchment over them, and they remained very moist. Since they were done so quickly, I didn’t get the parchment removed, so I browned them a bit under the broiler as suggested, and it worked great. They are very garlicky and lemony–so easy, and so good. A great go-to recipe for when you are in a hurry.
Am so glad you liked them! . . . Carolyn t