Meyer Lemon Chicken

Sometimes I wonder if the people who write recipes have ever actually FOLLOWED the recipe.  I usually have pretty good success with recipes that I find in Cooking Light magazine but this one for Meyer Lemon Chicken was pretty far off the mark.  I blame myself really because I should have listened to my instincts that said something about this recipe was just not right.  For starters, the recipe calls for both bone-in chicken breast halves and chicken thighs to be baked together.  I hesitated to buy two different types of chicken but I trusted the magazine instead of myself, went against my better judgement and purchased the chicken that was called for in the recipe.  I didn't get too far into the recipe before I realized that cooking the chicken together was going to be a big mistake.  By the time the chicken breasts reached 165 degrees, (almost an hour) the chicken thighs were grossly overcooked.  That brings me to my second point of contention with this recipe - the total time listed on this particular recipe was 39 minutes.  It took me well over an hour and a half!  When everything was said and done, the chicken breasts were really tasty but unfortunately, the thighs were so cooked that they were almost inedible.  I will make this recipe again - next time with only one type of chicken.

Meyer Lemon Chicken
2 bone-in chicken breasts
2 bone-in chicken thighs
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon pepper
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 pound small red potatoes, quartered
1 Meyer Lemon, sliced
1/4 cup finely chopped shallots (I used onion)
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1 cup chicken broth
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 Tablespoon Meyer Lemon juice
2 Tablespoons butter







Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper.  Spray large skillet with cooking spray and add chicken.  Cook until golden brown. Turn and brown other side. 





Place pan in a 400 degree oven and bake until 165 degrees.  The recipe claims that this takes 12 minutes.  Mine took about 40 minutes.  Remove chicken from pan and discard drippings.   Add 1 Tablespoon oil to pan and add potatoes and salt.  Cook until browned on all sides.

Remove potatoes and add lemon slices to pan.  Brown 1 minute on each side.

Remove lemon and add 1 Tablespoon oil to pan.  Add onions, garlic, wine and fresh thyme.  Bring to a boil and cook 2 minutes.

Add 2/3 cup chicken broth, salt, pepper, potatoes and lemon slices.  Cook until potatoes are tender.  Again the recipe suggests that this will take 2 minutes.  Mine took about 15 minutes.

Combine remaining 1/3 cup broth and cornstarch.  Add to pan.  Bring to a boil.  Cook and stir 1 minute.

Add lemon juice and butter.

Serve potato - lemon  mixture over sauce.

Although this recipe was incredibly frustrating - it still produced a pretty tasty chicken breast.

Even though dinner was about an hour later than I had planned, we still enjoyed the lemon chicken breasts with potatoes and a side of brown rice and steamed broccoli.  And since the Pinot Grigio was already open - I enjoyed a glass with dinner as well.  Delicious.

Ciao!