No offense to lemonade, but I've found something better to make with those lemons life might hand you. If you think making dinner from scratch requires you to spend a lot of time in the kitchen and reach the dinner table exhausted, then this one's just for you:
Imagine piling your plate high with tender, juicy chicken surrounded by roasted potatoes and caramelized onions, all lightly seasoned with the flavors of garlic and lemon. Then realize it involves layering those ingredients in a frying pan, seasoning them lightly, and letting them spend about an hour in the oven before you call dinner done. You're welcome.
One of the things I like best about this recipe is that the lemons roast along with everything else in the pan, so you can squeeze warm, roasted lemons over your plate if you're like me and love lemon. If that's a bit too much tartness for you, skip the squeeze! I suppose you could skip the lemons, but I simply cannot understand why anyone would do that. You can use any kind of potato you have on hand. I happened to have a mix of different CSA taters, so that's what I used. If you were wondering what those purple things are in the photo — they're taters, too!
You could make a salad to go with this meal, but it really is a meal on its own. Pour yourself a glass of wine and simply dig in. You have the benefit of a dinner that requires very little prep work and creates very few dishes. Take the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful spring weather and take a leisurely after-dinner stroll!
Lemon Chicken and Potatoes
- 4-6 medium potatoes, scrubbed and cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 large onion, peeled and chopped
- 1 pound chicken thighs
- 2 small lemons, sliced into wedges
- Salt, pepper and lemon pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
Preheat the oven to 425° F.
Add half of the potato pieces and all of the onion to the bottom of a large, nonstick frying pan. Arrange the chicken thighs over the vegetables and then tuck the remaining potatoes and the lemon wedges into the pan around the chicken. Sprinkle everything with the seasonings, making sure to evenly distribute them.
Cover the pan and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour or until the chicken is fully cooked and the potatoes and onions are tender. Remove the lid and place the pan under the broiler for a couple of minutes to brown the top of the chicken and vegetables a bit before removing from the oven. Allow the pan to cool for 10 minutes prior to serving.
- Yields: 4-6 servings
- Preparation Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes