Ina Garten’s Lemon Chicken Breasts

When I was younger, I think I had some variation of chicken every night for dinner. I guess my sisters and I were pretty picky eaters and my Mom knew that we would eat chicken….especially chicken fingers. Sometimes she would make veal and lie to us telling us it was chicken…that little sneak! Now that I have grown up and I like almost everything, I have found that I don’t eat chicken as much. However, when I do have chicken for dinner, I have found that I really enjoy it.

The other night, I prepared roasted bone-in chicken breasts using Ina Garten’s technique and they came out absolutely delicious. They were incredibly moist and perfectly cooked. I was very proud of myself for preparing such good chicken! Not only did this chicken taste delicious, it was so simple to make and you probably have most of the ingredients on hand already. This would make for a perfect weeknight dinner. It is really important to use bone-in and skin-on chicken breasts as this will help to keep your chicken breasts moist and give the chicken flavor. An extra bonus is that bone-in and skin-on chicken breasts are less expensive than boneless skinless chicken breasts!

Lemon Chicken Breasts (adapted from Ina Garten)

Serves 4.

Ingredients

1/4 cup good olive oil
3 tablespoons minced garlic (9 cloves)
1/3 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 bone-in chicken breasts, skin on
1 lemon

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 F.
Warm the olive oil in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, add the garlic, and cook for just one minute — but don’t allow the garlic to turn brown. Turn off the heat, add the white wine, lemon zest, lemon juice, oregano, thyme 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 eight 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 two 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

*Note: It is important to pour the sauce into the baking pan first and then place the chicken on top of the sauce. This will help the chicken to brown.

Ina recommends serving with a vegetable and cous cous or rice. I served the roasted chicken with roasted brussels sprouts and cous cous. Pour some of the juices from the pan over the cous cous.