I have fallen in love with this recipe. If you are tired of eating dry and bland baked chicken, you will fall in love with this recipe too! You would never think that making such moist, succulent, and flavorful chicken could be this easy. Anyone who knows me will tell you I greatly dislike chicken breasts; however, with this amazing recipe, I will throw down chicken breasts in a heartbeat!

The original recipe is from one of my favorite chefs, Ina Garten. Although I loved the original recipe, I made a few tweaks to reflect my own preferences. I opted to use fresh herbs instead of dried since I have them readily available from my mini-garden. I also added red pepper flakes because Michael and I love our food on the spicy side. Most importantly, though, I used bone-in chicken breasts because the meat comes out much more moist. The bone adds so much more flavor to the chicken while roasting as well. I also used chicken drumsticks in my recipe because I personally like them. You can feel free to use more chicken breasts, or chicken thighs instead.

So the next time you’re planning on making chicken breasts again for dinner, give this recipe a try! I promise they’ll stop responding with, “chicken again?” 😉

Recipe
Yield: 2 servings

INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp. minced garlic* (about 10 cloves)
1/3 cup dry white wine
1 tbsp. grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
2 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice (1 lemon)
1 tbsp. chopped fresh thyme or 1 tsp. dried thyme
2 tbsp. chopped fresh oregano or 1 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 bone-in chicken breasts, skin on
2 to 4 chicken drumsticks, skin on

*For recipes like this where I’m marinating meat, I get a little help from the store and use minced garlic in a jar.

DIRECTIONS:
1. Warm the olive oil in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Be careful not to let the garlic brown. Turn heat off.
2. Add the wine, lemon zest, lemon juice, thyme, oregano, red pepper flakes, and 1 teaspoon salt. Stir and set aside.
3. Place chicken breasts (skin side up) and drumsticks onto a large baking dish and drizzle with a little olive oil. Pour the lemon garlic mixture over chicken. Use a spoon to scoop some of the mixture and herbs on top of each piece of chicken. Sprinkle chicken liberally with salt and pepper.
4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Let the chicken marinate for a few minutes while the oven preheats. Bake for about 45 minutes, until the chicken is done and the skin is lightly brown. Remove from oven.
5. Cover the pan with foil and let the chicken rest for 10 minutes to let the juices redistribute. Serve with the pan juices.