Looking for an easy Father’s Day dish? Here’s one you can pull together in minutes. I cooked a whole chicken for my Dad. I baked the chicken, with little slits in the bird all around to let the juices and seasonings in. Garnish with slices of lemon baked along with the chicken and you’ll have a taste and presentation hit. Enjoy!
Lemon Chicken
Ingredients
3-4 pounds chicken parts (thighs and legs recommended *update*, upon further review, I think the chicken breast is the best for this dish. It is a less ‘fatty’ piece of chicken and allows for the lemon flavor to disperse better in the meat), skin-on, bone-in, trimmed of excess fat
1/3 cup lemon juice
2 Tbsp chopped garlic
2 Tbsp fresh chopped thyme (or 2 teaspoons dried)
1 Tbsp fresh chopped rosemary (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1 teaspoon season salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 rough chopped onion
2 lemons, sliced
olive oil
Lemon slices for garnish
Method
Place lemon juice, garlic, thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper in a small bowl, whisk to combine. With the tip of a sharp knife, cut into each chicken piece one or two times by about 1/2 an inch. (This will help the marinade penetrate.)
Rub chicken with olive oil and line pan with chicken, skin side up, place rough chopped onion and slices of lemon around chicken. Pour marinade over each piece, paying special attention to cuts in the meat to allow juice to soak in. Liberally season top of chicken with additional chopped garlic, thyme, and rosemary if available.
Preheat oven to 425°F. Place chicken in oven. After about 25 minutes of cooking, baste chicken in juices as it cooks.
Bake for a total of 50 to 55 minutes, until the skins are crispy brown, and the chicken is cooked through, juices running clear (breasts have an internal temperature of 165°F and thighs 175°F).
Depending on the size of the breasts, they may be ready before the thighs, so if you are cooking a mix of chicken parts, keep that in mind, you may have to take them out of the oven before the thighs.
Before removing from pan, baste in juices to remove liberally coating of garlic and herbs applied at the start of cooking. Let rest, covered in foil, for 10 minutes before serving.
Serve the chicken on a colorful platter with cooked lemons and onion as garnish.
Serves 4-6.
Delicious!I’m marinating the chicken now for an hour and have followed your tip about cutting through the chicken a little to let the marinade it…it really smells wonderful!I’d love to guide our readers to your site if you won’t mind.Just add your choice of foodista widget to this post and it’s all set to go, Thanks!
I’m so glad you liked it. It really makes an impression with very little effort.
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Hello Angie! I found this blog in foodista and followed it here. This is a lovely blog and awesome Lemon Chicken recipe. Reminds me of mom’s recipe and it was superb. By the way you can place more foodista widget in your past and future blogs so that other foodista readers can follow and see your blog too. Just search for a related recipe or food in Foodista and use its widget. I hope to read more from you. Cheers!