Garlic Chicken and Preserved Lemon

April 22, 2020


So we are on day 36 of quarantine and the imagination in cooking is just getting more important. We’re trying to conserve food, use what we have, not let anything go to waste and fill our bellies and our souls with a good meal.

-Preheat oven 350
-Get your boneless chicken thighs and pat them dry.
-Generously sprinkle garlic powder, onion powder, salt & pepper all over the chicken.
-Sear the chicken for great color, top down, in an oiled cast iron skillet or heavy pan, flip.
-Smash 4 garlic cloves, add to pan, drizzle a good olive oil over chicken, and add about 4 dollops of greek yogurt in and around the chicken.
-Slice thinly a small preserved lemon, remove the guts and add rind to the chicken.
-Place your broccolini all around the rim of the pan and drizzled a little olive oil, squeeze half of a lemon over chicken and broccolini
-Add salt & pepper on broccolini, put in the oven at 350.
-It will be done when the broccolini is a little crispy and bright green
-Sprinkle a bit of cumin over the top after you take the pan out of the oven.

The chicken and broccolini is tangy, warm, creamy, and garlicky with little shocks of bright lemon running through it. Total comfort food and something about it feels healthy.
I paired it with my new favorite thing to make, crispy rice. I know there are proper ways to make this, but heres what I did.
I used day old rice, which I make in abundance now for this very recipe.
-I put 1/2 to 1/4 of the rice in a heavy dutch oven pot with a lid.
-Mix in maybe 1/2 cup of greek yogurt, salt & pepper.
-I also used cumin, smoked paprika, garlic powder, an oil drizzle.
-Mix thoroughly and pat down the rice in the bottom of the pan.
-Add the rest of the rice to the top of the pot.
-Create three holes with the end of the spoon, through the rice to the bottom of the pan. This allows a little steam to escape.
-Place lid on, put on the burner at medium/low heat and don’t leave the stove.
-It’ll be a few minutes, the bottom will begin to crisp. You can do all this without preserved lemon…I have never used them before this, but I wanted to try! I sell them in the store, they are gorgeous little lemon drop looking power houses of flavor.

This is a delicate dance between perfect and burnt. If its perfect, you will be able to slide/scrape a crispy golden layer of toasty heavenly rice over in the pan in a gorgeous chunk. I love this rice and it is the perfect side to just about anything.

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