Sometimes the best dishes are ones that don’t require a lot of fancy ingredients or cooking techniques. Just the basics – herbs, spices and some good olive oil can produce amazing results when the right combination comes together. This lemon herb chicken is a great example. A marinade of lemon juice, olive oil and white wine is combined with fresh herbs and spices to give the chicken lots of flavor. Toss the chicken with the lemon mixture, then simply bake. The result is tender, juicy, flavorful chicken. If you’re in a rush, you can easily prep the chicken the ahead of time, then pop it in the oven before you want to eat.
Baked Lemon Herb Chicken
Yields: 4 servings
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 1/3 cup dry white wine
- 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (minced)
- 1 teaspoon fresh sage (minced)
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 4 boneless chicken breasts, skin on or skinless*
- 1 lemon
*The recipe calls for skin-on chicken breasts, but I used skinless. They just won’t get as brown as the skin would.
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degress F.
Warm the olive oil in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, add the garlic, and cook for just 1 minute but don’t allow the garlic to turn brown. Off the heat, add the white wine, lemon zest, lemon juice, oregano, thyme, sage and 1 teaspoon salt and pour into a 9 by 12-inch baking dish.
Pat the chicken breasts dry and place them skin side up over the sauce. Brush the chicken breasts with olive oil and sprinkle them liberally with salt and pepper. Cut the lemon in 8 wedges and tuck it among the pieces of chicken.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken breasts, until the chicken is done and the skin is lightly browned. If the chicken isn’t browned enough, put it under the broiler for 2 minutes. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and serve hot with the pan juices.
