Roasted Chicken Thighs with Lemon and Oregano

By Paul Briand

One of my favorite iPhone apps is something called Flipboard, which enables me to literally flip through a variety of news and information.

And one source of information that I keyed into my Flipboard preferences is a Recipes category, which is where I stumbled across this recipe for Roasted Chicken Thighs with Lemon and Oregano from Bon Appetit..

A couple of notes on this recipe: I didn’t use fresh oregano; I used what I had in my spice rack. Also, it seemed that the caramelization of the lemon rind added some bitterness to the dish, at least that was the sense that my wife and I had.

Ingredients
1 lemon
4 large or 8 small skin-on, boneless chicken thighs
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 teaspoons olive oil, divided
3 sprigs oregano
1 tablespoon minced shallot
1/2 garlic clove, minced
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup dry white wine (such as Sauvignon Blanc)
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.. Very thinly slice half of lemon; discard any seeds. Cut remaining lemon half into 2 wedges. Season chicken thighs with salt and pepper;
2. Coat a large room-temperature skillet with 1 teaspoon oil. Add chicken, skin side down;
3. Place skillet over medium heat and cook, letting skin render and brown, and pouring off excess fat to maintain a thin coating in pan, until chicken is cooked halfway through, about 10 minutes;
4. Scatter half of lemon slices over chicken and half on bottom of skillet (the slices on top of the chicken will soften; those in the skillet will caramelize);
5. Transfer skillet to oven, leaving chicken skin side down. Roast until chicken is cooked through, skin is crisp, and lemon slices on bottom of skillet are caramelized, 6-8 minutes;
6. Transfer chicken pieces, skin side up, and caramelized lemon slices from bottom of skillet to a warm platter. (Leave softened lemon slices in the skillet.);
7. Return skillet to medium heat. Add oregano sprigs, shallot, garlic, and red pepper flakes; cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 1 minute;
8. Remove skillet from heat. Add wine; cook over medium heat until reduced by half, 1-2 minutes;
9. Add broth; cook until thickened, about 3 minutes;
10. Squeeze 1 lemon wedge over and season sauce with salt, pepper, and juice from remaining lemon wedge, if desired;
11. Drizzle with 2 teaspoons oil. Return chicken to skillet, skin side up, to rewarm. Serve topped with caramelized lemon slices.

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Sticky Lemon Chicken

By Paul Briand

I went trawling this week for some recipes on the BBC Good Food web site, where I’ve had some good luck in the past.

This time I netted this Sticky Lemon Chicken.

The flavor of this dish was disproportionate to the effort. In other words, you get a lot of flavor from this dish without a lot of ingredients and/or cooking time.

Ingredients
4 chicken breast fillets with skin, about 5 ounces each
1 large lemon
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves or a generous sprinkling of dried
1½ tablespoons honey

Directions
1. Preheat oven broiler to high and lightly oil a shallow heatproof dish;
2. Put the chicken in the dish, skin side down, and season with salt and pepper. Grill for 5 minutes. While the chicken is grilling, cut four thin slices from
the lemon;
3. Turn the chicken fillets over and put a slice of lemon on top of each one;
4. Sprinkle over the thyme and a little more seasoning, then drizzle with the honey;
5. Squeeze over the juice from the remaining lemon;
6. Return to the grill for 10 minutes more, until the chicken is golden and cooked all the way through.

You can serve the chicken and the sticky juices with rice or potatoes.

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Lemon Shrimp On Rice

By Paul Briand

One way or the other, I planned to do a shrimp recipe for this week.

And I had two in mind: This Lemon Shrimp On Rice, which came as part of a coupon book from the supermarket where I food shop; and a Puff Pastry-Wrapped Jumbo Shrimp recipe that I found cruising the web.

My wife Jane preferred the pastry-wrapped shrimp -- with its garlic and herb spread and bacon and buttery puff pastry.

I decided on the lemon shrimp for the simple reason of getting on on the scale Monday morning and not liking what I saw.

This is pretty simple and low fat, and I adapted it here from the original.

I’m sure I’ll get to the puff pastry shrimp recipe soon.

Ingredients

1 cup of your favorite rice (enough to make for four servings)

1 cup of low-sodium chicken broth

1 ¼ cup water

1 tablespoon butter (or olive oil)

2 cloves minced garlic

Red pepper flakes to taste (1/8 to ¼ teaspoon)

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 pound prepared cooked shrimp (the larger the better)

1 lemon, sliced

1 tablespoon fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Make sure the prepared shrimp is fully thawed, at room temperature and dry;

2. Cook the rice according to normal instructions, but bringing the cup of broth and the cup and a quarter of water to a boil;

3. Add the butter, garlic, red pepper and lemon zest, stir;

4. Add the rice, stir, cover and turn the heat to low;

5. Simmer rice the normal cooking time until done;

6. Stir in the shrimp and lemon slices;

7. Cover, remove from heat and let sit for three minutes;

8. Top mixture with cilantro and serve.

Click here for recipe card.