Roasted Lemon Chicken-The Recipe
Here’s the recipe for the Roasted Lemon Chicken that was featured in a recent bento box. The recipe is best when you have time to fully marinate the chicken so I would tag this as a “cook for dinner then pack leftovers for your next day’s bento lunch”. If you prefer a lighter flavor, you can whip this up in about 30-40 minutes.
Lemon Roasted Chicken
Ingredients:
4 chicken thighs, cut into bite sized pieces. I removed the skin, but you don’t have to. I also buy free range chicken.
1/4 cup of light shoyu
1/8 cup of mirin
splash of sake (optional)
juice of 1 large lemon
1/8 cup of pureed fresh ginger
1/8 cup of honey
1/8 cup of cornstarch
Lemon zest
Preparation:
Combine all the ingredients except the corn starch and lemon zest.
Marinate the chicken for more than an hour for best flavor. ( I hesitated to post a raw meat photo, it just never looks good)
After the marination phase place the chicken and mixture in a skillet and cook at medium-high and simmer until it comes to a boil. Stir constantly.
Working quickly, mix the cornstarch with water or liquid from the pan until it’s dissolved. While the chicken is boiling pour the cornstarch mix over the chicken and continue stirring. The liquid will immediately thicken. You can see in the photo that it got lumpy. But don’t worry. It’s okay because these lumps will act like a crust when it’s roasted. The idea is coat the chicken with the thickened sauce. Turn off the heat and get ready to roast.
Here’s the good part, pre-heat the oven (I use my toaster oven as usual) to 425 degrees. When it’s nice and hot, remove the chicken from the skillet then place the pieces (not touching each other) on a pan and roast for about 15 to 20 minutes until browned. Any bits of lumpy cornstarch will crisp and create a sticky crust. Turn them over and cook for another 5-10 minutes.
Garnish with lemon zest and serve. For packing in a bento box, let the chicken cool before packing.
That’s about it. You can easily adjust the recipe to your own tastes. I’ve mentioned before that I don’t really measure out my ingredients. And for recipes that contain meat, I cook from memory as I don’t taste the foods while preparing. I do taste the sauces before it touches the meat and adjust the flavors before marinating, etc. This chicken doesn’t have a strong lemon tang but you can easily adjust by either adding more lemon to the marinate or glaze with lemon juice while roasting. I personally like adding the lemon zest.
Unfortunately, I forgot the zest when I packed the bento. The good news… Saba Man didn’t notice. :)
Yum! OK, you know this is coming up next for me….
Oh yes! I’m honored and I always look forward to your tasty variations. Can’t wait to see!
It looks all so easy! I love the double-cook idea of boiling down the marinade first – I’m always at a loss for what to do with the marinade after I pop the chicken in the oven.
nom nom nom
Thanks. Me too… it seems a shame to waste the “sauce”.
Great recipe! Thanks a lot for sharing ^.^
this do look delish
WOW! looks very delicious. I must bookmark it.
Love this recipe! I always like something with lemon, I will try this for sure. Food styling and the pictures look awesome. Thanks for sharing Debra!
this recipe looks amazing and the top photo is SO gorgeous it looks like it’s from “gourmet” or “food & wine” magazine – you are a real pro! i think it’s the zest garnish that sends it over the edge and makes me want to dive through the screen and steal the plate!
I love lemon chicken. Ok I’m inspired.
Hi!
Saw your website through the foodie blogroll….This pic of your roasted lemon chicken is amazing. I’m not really fond of chicken because of it’s notoriety for blandness, but your recipe here looks very tasty. I’ll try this out really soon!
Hi jcarsi, Welcome to my blog! I agree with you about chicken being bland. I don’t eat chicken anymore because I’m vegetarian, but my husband does. We’ve found that “free range” chicken has a robust flavor and it’s very tasty. It’s a bit more spendy but so well worth it. Thanks and I hope you like the recipe!
-Debra
I was looking for a tasty chicken recipe to pack for a bento tonight (I have an evening class that runs until late.) I definitely think i will be making this one!
Hi KatyCrayon-Thanks for you comments. Let me us know how you like the recipe. Looking forward to bento pics on Flickr?
Thanks everyone. Your supportive comments make me want to cook more stuff!
Can’t wait to try this, another awesome addition to the hapa bento recipe file! I agree with gamene, the lemon zest ribbons and elegant sprouts along with your excellent photography make this food art!
I will HAVE to try this – looks delicious!!
This looks mouthwatering! I have been in a cooking rut of late and you have inspired me. Thank you for sharing!
Made this tonight as I needed something quick and I already had all the ingredients. The combo of lemon juice and honey always makes for delectable yumminess. Thanks for the new weekday recipe