See For Yourself Why This Easy Lemon Chicken Is One of Our Most Popular Recipes (2024)

FAQs

Why is lemon so good with chicken? ›

A healthy dose of lemon juice keeps chicken breasts from drying out in the oven. Chicken breasts are a cook's conundrum. At their best, they're moist and tender, but too often, sadly, they end up dry and rubbery. The key to cooking success is understanding how to choose and handle the meat.

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Lemon chicken / Origin

What's the secret to wonderful lemon chicken? Use chicken thighs (or legs, but thighs are easier to eat), bone-in and skin-on. Lemon is acidic and helps balance the stronger flavor of the dark meat in thighs and legs, and the fat from the chicken skin.

The sauce has garlic, thyme and lemon, and has so much flavor," Garten says. "And the whole thing takes like 5 minutes to put together... The best thing about this is that it makes the chicken and the sauce at the same time." Serve it over rice or quinoa, and the grains can absorb all of the sauce, Garten recommends.

It has its distinctive sour taste and fresh scent because it's rich in citric acid. It comes from the flowering plant family Rutaceae, and its scientific name is Citrus limon.

Adding an acidic component (foods we'd consider to be sour) almost always enhances the flavors of a dish. A splash of vinegar or squeeze of lemon adds a brightness to foods that often doesn't occur on its own.

Lemon Chicken

It consists of pieces of chicken fried in batter and served with a viscous and sweet sauce. This is entry level Chinese food at it's finest, mostly because it's not really Chinese food.

But basically, we coat the chicken breasts in a thick, olive oil-based herb paste flavored with oregano, thyme, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Make the lemon chicken sauce! Stir together all of the zingy things—white wine, fresh garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice—to make the sauce that the chicken breasts will bake in.

Taxonomy. The origin of the lemon is unknown, though lemons are thought to have first grown in Assam (a region in northeast India), northern Myanmar, or China. A genomic study of the lemon indicated it was a hybrid between bitter orange (sour orange) and citron. The origin of the word lemon may be Middle Eastern.

I know this one by heart. Tender Juicy Chicken: The acidic lemon juice helps break down muscle fibers, making the chicken more tender.

What does lemon and vinegar do to chicken? ›

Washing raw poultry in a diluted lemon juice or vinegar solution is an inefficient method for removing pathogens and results in pathogens both in the wash water and on the chicken, increasing the risk for cross contamination and potential foodborne illness.

Use the lime and its juices to scrub the surface of each individual piece of chicken. This helps to remove the slime and film off the chicken. The salt helps to "exfoliate" as you scrub the limes on the chicken like a "sponge".

Make Ahead

If there are leftovers, they will be very tasty cold, kept moist with some of the cooking juices and eaten not straight out of the refrigerator, but at room temperature.

Ina Garten's go-to for her daily starter is McCann's Quick Cooking Rolled Irish Oats. The oats are steamed, rolled, and then cut thin and flat, which allows for their quick cooking time — the brand suggests that three minutes in the microwave is all that's needed.

This lemon chicken recipe yields tender chicken bites with a dominant flavor of lemon juice, mint and mild spices. Slightly tangy, mildly hot with full of flavors. It makes a great starter for parties or get together and can also be served as a side to a main course.

Lemon juice is a great meat tenderizer; the acidity gently breaks down the protein fibers in meat, according to Science Learning Hub. That leaves it scrumptiously fork-tender. “You can simply coat a piece of meat with lemon juice for at least one hour before cooking to improve tenderness,” Rifkin says.