Tuscan Lemon Chicken

Last week we made Ina Garten’s Tuscan Lemon Chicken. Next time, I would actually cook it on the barbeque pit instead of the grill, but it tasted good all the same!

You’ll need a flattened chicken, olive oil, grated lemon zest, fresh lemon juice, garlic, fresh rosemary, and pepper.

Salt the chicken.

Combine the olive oil,

Lemon zest, lemon juice,

Fresh minced rosemary,

Minced garlic,

And pepper.

Whisk to combine.

Pour over the flattened chicken.

Turn to coat, cover, and marinate for at least four hours or overnight. Thanks to my menu plan, I was thinking far enough ahead to marinate the chicken the day before I wanted to cook it, so I let it marinate overnight. You do want to turn it once or twice while it’s marinating to make sure all the good stuff completely coats the chicken.

The next day…

Get out the grill and your Grill Master! Ah, he looks like a natural!

Place the chicken skin-side up on a medium heat grill.

The recipe says to weight the chicken down while it’s cooking, but we decided not to.

The recipe says that after 12-15 minutes, flip, so we did. But, we shouldn’t have. We had to cook the chicken a lot longer than the recipe says to because Ina was using a barbeque pit, not a grill. We learned that cook times will be drastically different with some foods, chicken being one of them.

Next time, we’ll try this on the pit and I think we’ll get very different results.

Cut another lemon or two and place cut side down on the grill or pit for the last 10 minutes of cooking.

After your chicken has cooked (finally…) take it off of the heat and let it rest for a few minutes before you dig in.

The end result was great flavored chicken even though the cooking really didn’t go as planned. Squeeze a little extra lemon juice on it if you so desire. I did!

Enjoy!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Here’s the recipe, unchanged from Ina Garten’s back to basics cookbook:

• 1 (3 1/2-pound) chicken, flattened
• Kosher salt
• 1/3 cup good olive oil
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
• 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves)
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary leaves
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lemon, halved

Sprinkle the chicken with 1 teaspoon salt on each side.

Combine the olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic, rosemary, and 1 teaspoon pepper in a ceramic or glass dish just large enough to hold the flattened chicken. Add the chicken and turn to coat. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight, turning once or twice.

When ready to grill, prepare a hot charcoal fire on one side of a grill (or turn a gas grill on low heat). Spread 1/4 of the coals across the other side of the grill. Place the chicken on the cooler side skin up, and weight it down with the dish you used for marinating. Cook for 12 to 15 minutes, until the underside is golden brown. Turn the chicken skin side down, weight again with the dish, and cook for another 12 to 15 minutes, until the skin is golden brown and the chicken is cooked through. Place the lemon halves on the cool side of the grill, cut side down, for the last 10 minutes of cooking. Remove the chicken to a plate or cutting board. cover with aluminum foil, and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Cut the chicken into quarters, sprinkle with salt, and serve with the grilled lemon halves.