This past week and weekend has been sunny and hot in New England. Then today, out of no where, it was 50 degrees and rainy. All day. And it will continue to be cold and rainy all week. After a week of grilling out and eating fresh, a real meal sounded good – I jumped at the chance to make us a comforting dinner on a Sunday night.
Roasted Chicken
with lemon, garlic & thyme
4 chicken breasts, split 1/2 cup of olive oil 2 lemons, juiced 1/2 cup of white wine (optional) 6 cloves of garlic 10 sprigs of thyme 1 tablespoon of sea salt 1/2 tablespoon of cracked pepper
Place chicken breasts in a baking dish. In a bowl, combine olive oil, lemon juice, white wine and garlic. Place thyme sprigs on top of the chicken breasts. Pour mixture over the chicken. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the breasts. Cover and marinate for 1 hour or more, if you have the time. Bake chicken covered in foil at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken breasts. Remove from the oven, let sit for 10 minutes before serving.
Chicken breasts in my baking dish. Notice the mini bottle of white wine – I’ve been buying them to use in my cooking because we never have a bottle of white around the house.
Juicing the lemons, seeds? What seeds?
I like to pour the marinate over, then season. If I season them first, then the marinade just washes it away.
Ready to go into the fridge for an hour – if you have the time. If not, just go ahead and put them in the oven.
Put the chicken under the broiler for 2-3 minutes if they skin has not browned enough.
This is perfect – I love how the lemons get roasted, too.
I served them with mashed potatoes and drizzled the sauce over. Be sure to squeeze a little bit of the roasted lemon over, too – it has an amazing flavor after cooking in those garlicy juices.