Rosie's Luscious Lemon Chicken...

Hi Honeys
How are you?  I hope your week is going well so far.  There is a change in the air dear ones, autumn has arrived, leaves are starting to change colour and fall from the trees and there has been a remarkable number of references to Christmas during the past weekend at work!

Apparently, or so I was told, we have thirteen more Mondays till Christmas.  How did that even happen?  Now this is the part of the year that I start telling everyone who'll listen that I want to hibernate.  I'm so, so so not a winter kinda gal.

The cold and damp conditions make my arthritis flare and the almost constant darkness (we have less than six hours daylight in winter...yikes) seems to suck all of the joy out of my whole being.  It would be so much easier if I could just trot off upstairs around the end of September every year with a hot water bottle and our furbaby Jade, snuggle under the duvet and snooze happily until around early/mid March.

Then Hubby could wake me with a cup of tea saying "it's a sunny day, I've set up nice new washing lines on the poles outside and your first load of laundry is on the go."  Bliss!! Heaven for me is a sunny day and a huge pile of laundry to wash and peg outside.  Not much fun for the arthritic old bones but it's sheer joy for my soul 😊   

Unfortunately though, I'm not a wee grizzly bear so hibernation isn't an option.  Instead, at this time of year my mind turns to planning yummy, warming dinners to welcome my sweet, hard working Hubby home at night.  He's out the door very early every day, has a long commute to work and is really tired when he gets home at night so what better welcome when he arrives home than a delicious smell of something yummy coming from the kitchen? 

Who can resist lemon chicken honeys?  It's an extra yummy dish perfect, either hot or cold, for summer with crispy salads or for cooler days served with rice or steamed vegetables.

There are so many different variations of lemon chicken to be found, as many recipes as there are cooks who make it.  Everyone has their own little touches to make their lemon chicken perfect but it's such a delicious, and easy to make, dish, well I thought I'd share my own little method...


I adore all things lemony.  Lemon curd (homemade of course!) delicious lemon drizzle sponge loaf (which you can find here) and of course one of Hubby's faves chilli chicken fillet burgers with lemon mayonnaise (which you can find here.)

I love, love, love experimenting in the kitchen, you never know what you'll come up with and you might even find a loved one's newest favourite dinner (Hubby does still love those chilli fillet burgers) 😊  Let's get started then, shall we honeys? To the kitchen.....

Rosie's Luscious Lemon Chicken

Ingredients:

Chicken - either chicken breast fillets or (as I used here) 600g diced chicken breast fillet.

Approx. 70g or 1/2 cup of plain (all purpose) flour - don't stress over measuring honeys, you just need enough to coat your chicken. 

Salt & pepper

Approz 4fl oz/110ml or roughly 1/2 cup of olive oil - again, enough to cook your chicken in, don't fret about being exact all will become clear soon. 

2 large lemons sliced

2 tablespoons of lemon juice.

Directions: 

1. Add flour, with a pinch of salt and pepper, to a bowl. 

2. Add olive oil to a large, flat bottomed pan.  I use a sautee pan but a large frying pan or a wok will do fine honeys.  Put over a low heat.  

3. Wash your lemons, then using a zester (or very carefully with large part of a grater) grate some of the lemon skin/zest into your olive oil.  Stir with a spatula to mix the lemon through the oil.  Don't allow the olive oil to over heat.

4. Add your chicken pieces to the bowl of flour and coat each piece before adding to the olive oil.  Increase the heat under the olive oil to medium.  Cook each piece of chicken until it has browned slightly and no pink is left.  

Depending on the thickness of the chicken this should take 4-5 minutes, each side, possibly less.  

You may have to cook your chicken in portions, coating in flour and then adding to pan, until it is all cooked, but as each piece of chicken is browned and cooked, remove it and place on a plate to one side until all of the chicken is cooked.

5. If necessary, add a little more olive oil to the pan.  Slice the two lemons.

If you've added more olive oil to the pan, you might want to grate a little more lemon zest too before slicing the lemons.

Of course it's possible to make your own lemon infused olive oil by adding lemon zest and a little lemon juice, to a sterilised glass bottle with olive oil and allowing it to steep (to sit, sorry just realised I'd used Scottish slang 😊  It can then be stored in the fridge for up to a month.  Lemon olive oil is delicious with fish, chicken or even drizzled over salad as a dressing.

6. Add the sliced lemons to the pan, cooking over medium heat for a minute or so on each side.

7. Add your cooked chicken back to the pan, drizzle over some lemon juice (I use bottled which I store in the fridge) around 2 - 3 tablespoons should do, and continue cooking for a further 4-5 minutes moving the chicken around the pan with the lemon slices...

8.  Serve to loved ones and await compliments, smiles and hugs 😊

I served this with fluffy brown rice (much healthier than the bleached white rice) Remember not to waste all of that gorgeous lemony olive oil goodness in the pan though, there won't be much there but what there is, why not drizzle it over your chicken and rice?

I added steamed vegetables, in this case garden peas, thinly sliced carrots and sweetcorn,  to our fluffy brown rice and it was simply delicious!!

Yum!

So, there it is honeys.  That's our version of lemon chicken, how do you make your favourite lemon chicken?  I've heard that some recipes add a little sugar or honey when cooking the chicken? or that the chicken is cooked in butter?

Hubby & I are huge fans of olive oil so it's more natural for me to use that, in addition to the health worries of frying in butter... especially since Hubby & I are, well.. we may not be old yet but we're no longer spring chickens either 😊 although I'm sure it tastes amazing. 

The sun has made an appearance today honeys, if it does it again tomorrow I may risk pegging out some laundry 😊  Whatever you're doing dear ones, till next time, smile lots and hug even more 😊  Huggles always xx