Lemon Chicken

This is a one-pan meal, well other than cooking your rice. This dish started with my mother in law, she makes a version of this that we have all really loved so after some trial and error I came up with my own spin on it. I always serve this over white rice but it would be just as good over brown or wild rice.

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts

1 ½ cup flour

4 large pinches of course pepper/fresh cracked pepper

1 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 can chicken broth

1 cup water

4 cloves garlic

4 tbsp. lemon juice

1 generous spoon full of chicken soup base (I know that sounds crazy but just go with it)

olive oil

1 tsp. cornstarch

In a bowl mix your flour with pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. Cut your chicken breasts in half and use a hand meat tenderizer and then cover the chicken with flour and set aside. You want to use a pan large enough to hold all of your chicken at once and giving it enough room to cook if your chicken is piled on top of each other it won’t cook correctly. That is the key to this recipe, you need it all to fit into one pan. Also as in most of my recipes I use a cast iron skillet, you benefit from a thick skillet because it cooks more evenly. In your skillet add enough olive oil so there is about a ¼ of an inch covering the bottom. Make sure you oil is nice and hot, I check it by just sprinkling some flour into the skillet and see if it starts to form bubbles around it quickly. Before adding the chicken coat again in the flour then place each piece in your pan. If you get some extra flour no problem, it will just add to the sauce. Only turn your chicken once, if you keep turning it your coating will fall off and then no more crunchies…not cool. Once your chicken turns a dark brown remove from your skillet and turn it off your burner. You need to let your skillet cool a little because you are going to be adding the chicken broth and water and well in case you have forgotten…oil and water do not mix, especially hot oil. If I have an excessive amount of oil I take paper towel and soak up some of while trying to leave as much of the cooked flour as I can. after about 5 minutes your skillet should be cooled enough to add your can of chicken broth and water, you may get a little sizzle but you shouldn’t get the massive greasy explosion like you would have if you would add it right away. Next, add your garlic, use a press or crush it with your knife and then chop it finely. Next, add your lemon juice and a large spoon of chicken soup base (in a previous post I talked about that base, you can refer back to “a few of my favorite things, spices edition if you need to see what I am talking about), this adds a lot to the flavor but don’t over do it because it will make it super salty if you aren’t careful. Let your sauce simmer for about 15 minutes, you want the garlic to cook. Add your chicken back to the skillet, I simmer it for about 5-10 minutes after that then take your corn starch and put it in a bowl and dissolve it in about two tablespoons of water and add it to your sauce, mix it in and cook until your sauce thickens a little. Serve over your favorite kind of rice.