Lemoniest Lemon Chicken

I haven’t posted here in ages not because I no longer want to cook but because I just came from vacation, got busy, experimented with a few duds that weren’t worth posting and because Dad started to get creative in the kitchen again and OF COURSE I have to eat what he cooks, which are mostly great but I can’t post them in my blog, right? *takes deep breath* Unless he guest-blogs.

Anyhoo, I kept a bunch of interesting recipes from Serious Eats that I wanted to try out. My co-worker, Tita E, picked the Chicken with Lemon recipe out of a pile and we started talking about how wonderful the chicken with lemon or orange dishes are from Chinese restaurants.

And that brought me back to the kitchen, chopping shallots and (just like the Nick from SE) wondering whether this simple recipe would yield the first blogworthy dish I cooked this year. When I was just starting to learn how to cook, one of the first recipes I tried was chicken with orange, coriander and ginger. Just the name sounded so horribly complicated to a kitchen noob and the process wasn’t that easy either. But I made that dish several times after the first try because it was just so addictive. (And it was one of the things I could do well, heehee.)

For the lemon chicken, I added a few very minor ingredients like ground coriander seeds and cilantro but stayed mostly faithful to the recipe. It looked good but the real test would come after the bite.

(pause)

My eyes teared up a bit. It was definitely the lemoniest lemon chicken I have ever eaten. Beat that Peking! This so beats eating out! And now that I’m done ranting, here’s the recipe.

LEMONIEST LEMON CHICKEN
Adapted from Serious Eats

• 4 pieces of chicken breast or thighs, bone-in, skin-on
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp ground coriander seeds
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup shallots, finely chopped
• 10 thin lemon slices, from about 2 lemons
• 1/2 cup dry white wine (or regular coca-cola if you don’t like alcohol)
• cilantro
• 1 tsp flour

Procedure:

• Season defrosted chicken pieces with salt, pepper and ground coriander. Let sit in 30 minutes in room temperature.

• Add butter to large, heavy bottomed skillet set over medium heat. Add chicken pieces skin side down. Cook until skin is golden, four to five minutes. Flip pieces and cook until lightly browned on other side, about three minutes.

• Sprinkle in shallots, and then place lemon slices on top of chicken pieces. Cook for five minutes.

• Pour in wine. Add a few sprigs of cilantro. Cover skillet and cook until chicken is cooked through, about 15 minutes.

• Remove chicken from the skillet and set aside in a serving pan. Remove the lemon slices and discard. Thicken the remaining dripping with flour or cornstarch, stir, and remove from heat.

• Top the chicken with dripping and garnish with fresh lemon slices and a sprig of cilantro. Service with hot, steamed white rice.