Sunday, March 6, 2011

Party in your mouth

The other day while grocery shopping, I saw lemons on sale 3/$1. I figured I could always find something to use them with so I bought some. I picked three bright yellow, very fragrant lemons and set them on the counter for future use.  Yesterday I decided to use them with chicken, so I hunted up a recipe online. I found the 15 Minute Garlic Lemon Chicken from Food.com, which called for cooking the chicken then making a roux-like1 sauce by adding to the pan with which you cooked. I've linked the original recipe for your convenience (and to give credit to the original poster), but it is also below so you don't have to go hunting around for it.

       15 Minute Lemon Garlic Chicken                 
      
Prep Time: 3 mins            Total Time: 15 mins

       Ingredients:

Servings: 4
·        4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
·        4 teaspoons flour
·        salt and pepper
·        2 teaspoons oil
·        1/2 cup chicken broth
·        1 teaspoon minced garlic
·        2 teaspoons lemon juice
·        1 teaspoon butter

       Directions:

  1. Flatten chicken slightly.
  2. Dust with flour and season to taste.
  3. Fry in hot oil 5 minutes each side and remove from pan.
  4. To pan add broth, garlic, lemon juice and butter. Cook 2 minutes.
  5. Pour over chicken.

I doubled the sauce recipe so I would have enough to add on top of the polenta I served with this chicken. It was my first attempt at polenta, and it wasn't quite what I expected, but I did enjoy it with the garlic lemon sauce. If you haven't had polenta before, it is basically a clean slate, flavor-wise, to which you can add a multitude of tastes and textures. I made it with the very basic recipe which just calls for boiling the precooked corn meal until it absorbs the liquid and then baking it for a bit to form a crust. When I have the time, I'll experiment with variations and share them with you.

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1A true roux is the base of many sauces and gravies. It is usually made with equal parts flour and fat (butter, oil, lard) which is cooked.