One Smart Chick

I'm not a big fan of chicken; serve me turkey,duck,or goose,and I'm a happy girl, but I find chicken tasteless and  dry to the point of being jerky: that is, until I met the Smart Chicken.  Now this is the place where you start saying, "well, where did it go to school, Harvard or Yale?"  Actually, these air chilled chickens don't have salt water pumped into them, it's just a chicken, air chilled, and sent to your supermarket. So, what do you do with a smart chicken? No, it won't do Junior's homework for him, but tonight I made a lemon oregano chicken in the oven, and it was succulent, juicy and nibble at the bone delicious.  I'm sold!  You will pay more for this chicken, but it's worth it to get something that tastes this good.  

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I needed some lemon, so I walked out to the lemon tree (yes, this monster is a DWARF MEYER LEMON) and picked a few.  I'll tell you the story of the lemon tree another time, it's a great story of resurrection.  

 Good extra virgin olive oil, lemons, garlic, salt, and oregano.

 

 Here's the chicken:  there was none of that gooey mess in the bottom of the container, it was almost dry.  I cut up the chicken into pieces, and then poured a mixture of 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/3 cup lemon juice, 1 teaspoon sea salt, 6 cloves garlic, minced, and 2 teaspoons dried oregano over the chicken in an ovenproof pan.  Broil the chicken until it is golden brown on all sides, then heat the oven to 350 degrees, and cook another 20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through (165 degrees on an instant read meat thermometer)  Remove from the oven, and squeeze a bit more lemon juice over the chicken, and garnish with finely chopped oregano.  Voila, Smart Chicken!

 I couldn't resist some Chino farm corn to serve alongside! 

Happy Weekend everyone; enjoy these last days of summer.  I'll be back on Monday with more.