Lemon chicken breasts, brown rice and steamed vegetables

It's been a while since I posted but that's partly because I drove across country to move for my job. Now that I'm settled in and had my first two days off from work for the week I started cooking again. Last night's meal was one I've made numerous times but tonight was a new recipe. For one reason I wanted to just try something new and for another reason, I wanted to be able to post here. The original recipe is courtesy of Ina Garten, star of "Barefoot Contessa" on The Food Network. It can be found here.

Review: Tonight's meal was simple to make. I'll admit I cheated a little more on this one and used ingredients that were already cut or packaged instead of fresh like I normally do. Still, this recipe I thought was pretty tasty and certainly tasted healthy. To help make it healthier I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts. The skin would have added more flavor but it's also not as healthy. Some comments on the original recipe said it was too lemony, but I agree with the majority of the comments in that it wasn't that lemony at all. Although, I also didn't use the lemon zest that the recipe calls for or cut a lemon into wedges and cook it with the chicken so that helped cut back on the lemon flavor. If anything it had more of a sweet taste to it because of the white wine. It wasn't overpowering for my liking but I could definitely taste it. Some people who commented said they didn't use the wine and it still turned out tasty so that's a possibility too. I suppose you could substitute the wine for chicken broth. I also did not use fresh thyme leaves but used dried instead. It took about 20 minutes to prep (if you use fresh ingredients for the garlic and thyme and lemons it might take longer) and 35 minutes to bake in the oven but the chicken itself stayed fairly moist. You might cook it for 25-30 minutes if you want it a little juicier but I would stick to the 30-35 minute range just to make sure the chicken is cooked all the way through. As far as the steamed vegetables go I cheated and used a bag of vegetables that you just have to put in the microwave. Normally I would have tried to steam them on the stove with boiling water and a colander in the pot. I also cheated with the brown rice and instead of cooking it on stove top I bought bowls that go in the microwave and are ready in 1 minute; however, I cooked white rice on the stove top for the other people I was serving.

Recipe:

• 1/4 cup good olive oil (I used extra virgin olive oil)
• 3 tablespoons minced garlic (9 cloves)
• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (2 lemons) (I left this out)
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (I used the lemon juice in the bottle)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves (I used dry leaves)
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4 boneless chicken breasts, skin on (6 to 8 ounces each)
• 1 lemon (I didn't use)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Warm the olive oil in a small saucepan over medium-low heat then add the garlic. Cook for 1 minutes but don't allow the garlic to turn brown. Turn off the heat then add the white wine, lemon zest (optional), lemon juice, oregano, thyme and 1 teaspoon salt and pour into a 9 by 12-inch baking dish. Pat the chicken breasts dry and place them skin side up over the sauce (or just place them in the pan if you use skinless breasts). Brush the chicken breasts with olive oil and sprinkle them liberally with salt and pepper (I flipped the chicken breasts over in the pan so both sides get the oil, garlic, wine, lemon juice on them and I also sprinkled both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper). Cut the lemon in 8 wedges and tuck it among the pieces of chicken (optional). Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken breasts, until the chicken is done and the skin is lightly browned (it will not really brown if you don't have the skin). If the chicken isn't browned enough, put it under the broiler for 2 minutes. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and serve hot with the pan juices (I served immediately and didn't use the pan juices).