Monday, August 6, 2012

Quick Lemon Thyme Chicken

When I get home from work after a long day at the office, I want to get dinner on the table pronto.  Also, there are so many delicious restaurants, take out options, and happy hours tempting us to stop all along our walk home, that I do need to be able to get something good on the table.  Otherwise the siren song of eating out will just be too strong.  This meal really fits the bill perfectly for a last minute, quick dinner using lots of ingredients that I already have around the house.  I have thyme growing around the garden and I almost always have a lemon and garlic hanging around.  I also sprinkled the chicken lightly with lemon zest and cayenne to give it a refreshing kick.  The sharpness of the lemon and the sweetness of the roasted garlic really worked for me.  You could easily use dried thyme if you do not have fresh.  This served as a great weeknight meal and we will be repeating it all summer.  
Quick Lemon Thyme Chicken (serves two)

Ingredients:
3 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 lemon
1/8 tsp. cayenne powder
3 cloves garlic
9 sprigs thyme (or 1 tsp. dry thyme)
salt and pepper
olive oil

1.  Rinse and pat your chicken thighs dry.  Sprinkle them with salt and pepper, cayenne powder, and zest from the lemon. 
2.  Coarsely chop the garlic and heat 1 Tbs. olive oil in a frying pan over medium high heat.  Add garlic to the oil and cook for 30 seconds.
3.  Add the chicken and cook for 4 minutes per side.
4.  Slice the lemon in half.  Juice 1/2 the lemon into the pan and slice the other half of the lemon into 3 discs.  Top each chick with some thyme sprigs and lemon discs.  
5.  Place the entire pan in a preheated 375 degree oven and bake for 10 minutes.
6.  Remove the chicken from the oven and serve.  Dinner's ready!
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1 comment:

  1. I made a relatively similar lemon and thyme chicken recipe for the 16 people who came over for Shabbat dinner at my house on Friday night! I baked instead of sauteed. It came out really well. Three cut up chickens, oil, lemon juice, thyme, pepper, garlic onions and maybe some other stuff. I pulled the recipe from the 1986 copy of Good Housekeeping's cookbook. Decided to use half the amount of onion it called for because I figured 1986 onions were smaller than 2012 onions. Who knows. I had only two or three pieces leftover at the end, so I think it went over well!

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