Lemon Chicken

Well the Lemon Chicken last night was moist and tender (didn’t even need a knife to cut it). Nice, quick and easy for a weeknight meal. Now that the good things have been said, it did not come out quite as well as I would have liked. However, that seemed to be just my opinion as there were no leftovers and everyone cleaned their plates. Don’t know, but I still feel as though it was lacking – a little too much brown sugar, not enough lemon in the sauce, perhaps brighten it up with some fresh thyme? Definitely a dish worth making again and tinker with a little.


Along side of the Lemon Chicken I made a quick, easy and flavorful Risotto with Fresh Peas. Okay, so I didn’t have any fresh peas on hand and used frozen instead – got to make do with what you have right? Anyway, every time I make Risotto people always think I have been sweating over the stove to make this big fancy dish and are always so impressed. But, the truth is, Risotto is very easy to make – you just can’t leave it unattended for long (like more than two or three minutes). And there are so many yummy variations it is always a go to dish in my house.

Lemon Chicken




2tbs veggie oil
½ cup flour
1 tsp paprika
Pinch salt and pepper
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 ½ tsp salt
½ cup chicken stock
1 lemon thinly sliced
¼ cup green onions (optional)

Heat veggie oil in large frying pan. Combine flour, paprika, salt and pepper. Squeeze lemon juice over chicken breasts, coating well. Dredge chicken in flour mixture and brown well in oil. Remove from pan and tent with foil to keep warm. Add chicken stock to pan (don’t forget to scrap up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan). Add lemon zest, brown sugar and salt stirring well to incorporate. Return chicken to pan placing lemon slices on top of chicken. Cover and cook over low heat approximately 25 minutes or until cook through. Garnish with green onions.

Risotto with Fresh Peas



32 oz chicken stock
1 Tb butter
1 TB olive oil
½ cup finely chopped onions
½ cup Arborio rice
½ cup fresh peas
Juice from ½ lemon
Parmesan Cheese for garnish

Heat chicken stock in a saucepan. Melt butter in olive oil in a sauté pan. Add onions and sauté until translucent. Add Arborio rice and a stir to coat well. Add two ladles of chicken stock. Stir and simmer over low heat until the broth is absorbed (about 5-10 minutes). Add additional stock to the rice, 1 to 2 ladles full at a time as the broth is absorbed by the rice, stirring frequently. The entire process should take about 30 minutes. Add peas and lemon juice, stirring until peas are warmed through. Garnish with parmesan cheese.

I hate this time of the day . . .

especially when I have not organized myself for the week. Normally I like to go through all of my recipes and map out a cooking strategy for the week. But nope, I was just too lazy to get it done this weekend. So now I am stuck with the question of what to fix for dinner. I had better figure it out soon - after all, I have two hungry little girls about to come home from school. Apparently, we picked the absolutely worse school for our girls to go to since they do not feed them at all during the day. Of course, the principal claims they get breakfast, lunch and a snack. However, I find that very hard to believe, they come home to ravenous – like two little tornados spinning through the kitchen sucking in every crumb they can find and leaving a path of destruction behind them.


Okay, focus, back the matter at hand. I must be quick before the spinning commences. I know I have chicken (good start), but how should I cook it? Chicken and rice is always good together. Hummmmmm. That’s it – Lemon Chicken with Risotto and Peas. Sounds perfect – now if I can just get it to taste perfect I will be doing good.