There are many ways to combine lemon and chicken. The best ways involve a couple of additional ingredients and nothing much more. The reason is that the combination is so good that you do not need many more ingredients to make a dish that tastes scrumptious. These dishes are simple and most of the time will be a marinade that ends up putting the dish in a recipe book. This recipe for lemon garlic chicken is also very simple, very tasty and when you put all the ingredients together a rather healthy choice.
The lemon chicken variations are very popular because all it takes is very little kitchen knowledge to come up with a tasty dish. Follow a few rules of the kitchen and the dish will be good and exciting. This dish can be served with many sides; long grain wild rice is a favorite but mashed potatoes also go great with the dish.
Most recipes will call for you to discard the marinade and that is completely up to you, but we always feel that the marinade also gives more flavors to the meal and you may want to cook the chicken breasts with the marinade to keep moisture in the meat and give it a stronger flavor. One small variation that you can enjoy a lot is to add a little honey to the marinade. This will glaze the chicken and give it a sweet flavor to balance the garlic.
Before using it, taste the marinade and if you like it then you can also let the chicken breasts cook in it. This will make the breasts a lot more moist and flavorful; the decision on the marinade is completely up to you and your preference. Another thing to note is that every time you cook chicken it is important for the skillet to be hot already, so always place the skillet on the stove and let it heat for at least two minutes. After that you should be ready to cook some of the best chicken you ever tried.
Ingredients:
- 6 skinless and boneless chicken breasts
- 2 tblspn of fresh lemon juice
- 2 tblspn of olive oil
- 2 minced cloves of garlic
- 1 tspn of honey
- 1 tspn dried oregano
- Salt and pepper to taste
- lemon slices and fresh oregano for garnish
Preparation:
Pour all the ingredients minus the chicken and the garnish into a glass dish and mix well to make the marinade. Make sure that all the ingredients are in and mixed well before you put the chicken into the dish. Once all ingredients are mixed and the marinade is ready, coat the chicken with the marinade by turning it.
You can choose to pour the marinade and the chicken into a plastic freezer bag or simply cover the plate with plastic to marinade. The preferred method is the bag because it seals the flavors in and it makes it easier to coat the chicken, but you can do either or. Refrigerate the dish or bag with the chicken and the marinade for 2 hours.
Heat one teaspoon of olive oil on the skillet for at least a minute on high heat to make sure it?s hot before you place the chicken in. Once the skillet and the oil are hot add the chicken to the skillet and cook for about 20 minutes flipping it only once to cook evenly. It is your choice to use the marinade to give it additional flavor, but it is not necessary.
Once that is done place the two pieces of chicken in a freezer bag and pour the marinade in. Shake the bag to ensure that the marinade coats both chicken breasts completely and place in a plate to avoid spilling. Place the plate with the chicken breasts in the fridge for at least two hours to let it marinate.
Once the chicken is done place on a plate and garnish with the lemon slices and oregano and serve. You do not need the marinade however if you want the chicken to have a little extra moisture you can pour the marinade on the skillet and let the chicken cook in the marinade.
Garnish the chicken with lemon wedges and serve with a side dish of choice.
