Tonight's dinner... a yummy lemon chicken that I planned to grill but it's really cold outside and sheet pan dinners are just so, so easy that I put it into the oven and roasted it instead. Along side it was a box of Long Grain Wild Rice from the pantry which uses just butter and water to prepare. (I used home canned butter - which you can see in the photo below in the background.)
The chicken was from the freezer although other food storage options would be canned chicken, freeze dried chicken and of course that vegetarian chicken I've been trying to use in various dishes for the past couple weeks. I honestly was going to throw it on the baking pan with the real chicken before I roasted this, but I was busy talking to my husband while I threw this together, and totally forgot.
The lemon you see is the one and only tiny lemon from our dwarf lemon tree we bought a few years ago on clearance at a hardware store at the end of season. We move the bucket outside on warm spring days and then it stays outside during the summer, and lives in the garage during the winter months. Some years it's given us 6-7 lemons but last summer just the one. (It seemed to be an 'off' year for most everyone with the dwarf version trees that I know.) This lemon has been living in the refrigerator for a couple months waiting on me to decide which was the one and only dish I would make with our single lemon. This chicken dish was it. :)
The chicken was from the freezer although other food storage options would be canned chicken, freeze dried chicken and of course that vegetarian chicken I've been trying to use in various dishes for the past couple weeks. I honestly was going to throw it on the baking pan with the real chicken before I roasted this, but I was busy talking to my husband while I threw this together, and totally forgot.
The lemon you see is the one and only tiny lemon from our dwarf lemon tree we bought a few years ago on clearance at a hardware store at the end of season. We move the bucket outside on warm spring days and then it stays outside during the summer, and lives in the garage during the winter months. Some years it's given us 6-7 lemons but last summer just the one. (It seemed to be an 'off' year for most everyone with the dwarf version trees that I know.) This lemon has been living in the refrigerator for a couple months waiting on me to decide which was the one and only dish I would make with our single lemon. This chicken dish was it. :)
Preparing it - the chicken has been marinating a couple hours. The rice is next to it, ready for the microwave.
The butter (home canned 2021) in the background
The butter (home canned 2021) in the background
Lemon Chicken
Chicken (whole chicken, butterfly or spatchcock it) I used breasts and thighs (boneless)
Lemon
Chicken (whole chicken, butterfly or spatchcock it) I used breasts and thighs (boneless)
Lemon
Lemon Juice - about 3 T
Olive Oil - about 3 T
Salt and Pepper
Smoked Salt (hickory flavor) or use Smoked Paprika or whatever you have
Garlic cloves - about 5-6 minced or chopped
Mix the oil, lemon juice and seasonings with the garlic. I used a stick blender since I was using
whole garlic cloves and this made it easy to blend it all and chop the garlic at the same time.
Pour over the chicken, slice the fresh lemon and lay the slices over all,
and let it marinate for at least a couple hours, up to 24.
Grill the chicken, basting with the marinade, or bake it in the oven at 400 degrees for about 35 minutes
or until done.
I served with long grain wild rice.
Olive Oil - about 3 T
Salt and Pepper
Smoked Salt (hickory flavor) or use Smoked Paprika or whatever you have
Garlic cloves - about 5-6 minced or chopped
Mix the oil, lemon juice and seasonings with the garlic. I used a stick blender since I was using
whole garlic cloves and this made it easy to blend it all and chop the garlic at the same time.
Pour over the chicken, slice the fresh lemon and lay the slices over all,
and let it marinate for at least a couple hours, up to 24.
Grill the chicken, basting with the marinade, or bake it in the oven at 400 degrees for about 35 minutes
or until done.
I served with long grain wild rice.
