Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Cooking with Dr. Monkey

Today's episode: pollo al limone (chicken with lemon).

I got this recipe out of a Tuscan food cookbook that we picked up one day at a used bookstore in Burnsville, NC.
I started off by zesting one lemon and then chopping the zest up. I also chopped up some sage, basil, thyme, and rosemary. Next I squeezed the juice of the lemon over the herbs which I put in a big mixing bowl. To the lemony herbs I added one cup of white wine, one quarter cup extra virgin olive oil, four cloves of roughly chopped garlic, and some salt and pepper.
Then I whisked it all together.
Into my whisked herb liquid mixture I added some bone in chicken thighs which I had taken the majority of the skin off of. I sloshed the liquid around to coat the chicken, covered it, and set it in the fridge to marinate for about two hours.
When I got ready to cook I heated up my frying pan and added a bit of olive oil to it and then I browned the chicken on both sides. I cooked it about 5 to 7 minutes on each side.
After my chicken was browned and in a baking dish, I added the marinade to the still hot frying pan and I deglazed the pan with the herby garlicky liquid. Once the marinade had absorbed the brown bits that had stuck to the bottom of the pan I poured it over the chicken in the baking dish, which I then put into the oven which I had preheated to 350 F.

I let the chicken bake in the oven for about 35 minutes.
I served the pollo al limone with some spicy cauliflower and a radish, shredded carrot, and mache salad. It was all quite tasty.

This was the second time I made this dish and it gets better each time I make it. You can ramp up the herbs when you cook it, I just used what Sparky had harvested out of our herb garden and had in the kitchen. If oyu like other herbs, feel free to use them. But I'd recommend that the only dry herbs you use are oregano and thyme, the rest should be fresh because herbs like basil, parsley, and rosemary taste better when they are fresh and not dried. And oyu can also use whatever cut of chicken you like, you could even use a whole roasting chicken if you wanted to. The keys to making this dish are the fresh herbs, the marination time of at least two hours, and the browning before baking.

If you make it, let me know how yours turned out.

9 comments:

Mnmom said...

This sounds fantastic! I wonder what would happen if you cooked and reduced the marinade then poured it over the already baked chicken?

Speaking of thyme, my cousin gave me a ziploc bag full of recently dried thyme. On the 2 hour drive home I was seriously hoping I'd get pulled over so some poor cop could get all nervous about the dime bag on my passenger seat.

Mnmom said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
lisahgolden said...

It looks delicious and I love that you're using homegrown items.

Laura said...

That looks really good and I know that my family would enjoy it!
I'm going to try it either this week or next, I'll let you know how it goes....

((Hugs))
Laura

Devilham said...

wow that sounded good

Snad said...

My mouth is watering, Monkey!

By the way, the brown bits that stick the pan are known as "fond". I am quite fond of fond, myself.

Barbara Bruederlin said...

This sounds so good! I'm always looking for some new way to cook chicken so will need to try this.

gmb said...

I had an old Italian aunt who made the best chicken. She just squirted some lemon on them, sprinkled some salt, must of added some garlic and broiled it. It had crispy skin and juicy meat and was perfect. As a three-year old, when she asked if I wanted something, I asked for that chicken (and not a cookie, like most kids would--her chicken was that good).

Margaret Benbow said...

Man alive, that sounds good. I can smell its deliciousness right off the page!