So I was on the phone with Brad the other day and he was talking about how Rao's in New York has some seriously good lemon chicken. Supposedly some of the best in all of the land. And then he was telling me how he read the recipe they published in their cookbook for this magical chicken and it didn't really make much sense to him. So I checked it out myself and I totally see what he is talking about. This recipe says something about putting your chicken under a broiler for 30 minutes and then tossing it with sauce and putting it back under the broiler. Sounds easy enough... if you like lemon charcoal. Anyway... I figure this is just one of those situations that requires a cook to do a little translation. A little improvisation.
I'll spare you my mental process and get right to the cooking part.
The first thing I did was marinate this chicken in Pellegrino Lemonata. It's just pellegrino with lemon juice and sugar in it. No corn syrup or other shitty poison. After about 2 hours I dried the chicken off, seasoned it lightly with salt and put it on the bottom rack in my oven under a HIGH broiler. Putting it on the bottom rack gave it some nice distance from the flames and allowed for a pretty even browning and crisping of the skin. I pretty much stayed in my kitchen and babysat this process so nothing got burned. At this stage I am only concerned with browning and crisping the skin of this bird... rather than cooking it all the way through. That comes later.
After the skin was where I wanted it I pulled the chicken from the oven and let it cool down on my stove top. After it was only warm I placed it back into a baking dish and poured a marinade over it. I made this marinade in the Vita-Mix. It was olive oil, garlic, dried oregano, lemon juice, lemon zest and red wine vinegar. The Vita-Mix basically emulsified this into a white frothy dressing which coated the chicken with a sort of nappe consistency. The warm birdy-parts really absorbed this stuff and that's exactly what I wanted. I threw this mixture into the fridge for about 2 hours and let the flavors marry.
I guess this is the point where "lemon chicken" goes from a very simple, quick dinner, to a slightly more extensive process. We all know that the longer and more involved a cooking process is, the more I like it, so I'm ok with that.
Hours later, when it was time to finish the dish, I pulled the chicken parts from the marinade, seasoned them with some sea salt and laid them out on a silpat-covered sheet pan. I preheated my oven to 450 degrees and roasted the heavily marinated bird until all of that lemony, garlicky-goodness crusted and carmalized to the (already crispy) skin. I served this with NO side dishes... We just savored the chicken in all of it's glory... and let me tell ya... It was really good. The lemon flavor was strong and savory. It actually penetrated deep into the meat of the bird rather than just staying on the skin. I'm pretty sure this happened as a result of me marinating the bird after the broiling process while it was still warm. (one of the tricks I picked up from the Rao's recipe). Whatever the case, it was juicy, lemony and delicious. This is hands down some of the best chicken I have ever had and a great way to turn 4 dollars worth of legs and thighs into some sexy gourmet goodness.
Here's a brighter pic of the skin.
I'll spare you my mental process and get right to the cooking part.
The first thing I did was marinate this chicken in Pellegrino Lemonata. It's just pellegrino with lemon juice and sugar in it. No corn syrup or other shitty poison. After about 2 hours I dried the chicken off, seasoned it lightly with salt and put it on the bottom rack in my oven under a HIGH broiler. Putting it on the bottom rack gave it some nice distance from the flames and allowed for a pretty even browning and crisping of the skin. I pretty much stayed in my kitchen and babysat this process so nothing got burned. At this stage I am only concerned with browning and crisping the skin of this bird... rather than cooking it all the way through. That comes later.
After the skin was where I wanted it I pulled the chicken from the oven and let it cool down on my stove top. After it was only warm I placed it back into a baking dish and poured a marinade over it. I made this marinade in the Vita-Mix. It was olive oil, garlic, dried oregano, lemon juice, lemon zest and red wine vinegar. The Vita-Mix basically emulsified this into a white frothy dressing which coated the chicken with a sort of nappe consistency. The warm birdy-parts really absorbed this stuff and that's exactly what I wanted. I threw this mixture into the fridge for about 2 hours and let the flavors marry.
I guess this is the point where "lemon chicken" goes from a very simple, quick dinner, to a slightly more extensive process. We all know that the longer and more involved a cooking process is, the more I like it, so I'm ok with that.
Hours later, when it was time to finish the dish, I pulled the chicken parts from the marinade, seasoned them with some sea salt and laid them out on a silpat-covered sheet pan. I preheated my oven to 450 degrees and roasted the heavily marinated bird until all of that lemony, garlicky-goodness crusted and carmalized to the (already crispy) skin. I served this with NO side dishes... We just savored the chicken in all of it's glory... and let me tell ya... It was really good. The lemon flavor was strong and savory. It actually penetrated deep into the meat of the bird rather than just staying on the skin. I'm pretty sure this happened as a result of me marinating the bird after the broiling process while it was still warm. (one of the tricks I picked up from the Rao's recipe). Whatever the case, it was juicy, lemony and delicious. This is hands down some of the best chicken I have ever had and a great way to turn 4 dollars worth of legs and thighs into some sexy gourmet goodness.
Here's a brighter pic of the skin.
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