Lemon Pepper Chicken

     Marinating meats or vegetables is a great way to help keep them moist while cooking. There are hundreds upon thousands of marinade recipes that you can buy in stores but when making them at home possibilities are endless. Christine and I are fans of lemon pepper seasoning so for dinner last night I decided to make up a basic marinade to include some lemon pepper seasoning we recently purchased. Most marinades use oil, vinegar, seasoning, and a small amount of water. Using my knowledge of marinades and the help of the internet to confirm, I came up with this recipe:

¼ cup vegetable oil

¼ cup water

2 tablespoons white vinegar

2 tablespoons Jane’s Krazy Mixed-Up Lemon Pepper Seasoning

     I marinated one large chicken breast, which weighed in at just under a pound, for about 10 hours. The longer you leave the ingredient in the marinade the more tender it will become. This is true with marinades that do not contain citrus or any other highly acidic ingredient. A quick tip when it comes to using citrus in a marinade, do NOT marinate for more that an hour. Citrus begins to cook whatever you are marinating in it, so when using a citrus based marinade only use it to brush on while you cook. This marinade doesn’t contain citrus; so feel free to leave whatever you’re marinating for as long as you would like, within reason.

     Heat up a pan with a tablespoon or two of olive oil over a medium heat. Just before adding the chicken breast, I cut mine in half lengthwise because it was so thick. This ensured that it would cook quicker and more evenly. Let the chicken cook for about 5 – 6 minutes or until golden brown and then turn it over and continue to cook for the same amount of time. Meanwhile, I used a box of broccoli rice Rice-A-Roni for a side. Following the directions on the box, I browned the rice in a tablespoon of butter then added 2 cups of water and the seasoning packet. Once this comes to a boil, turn down the heat and cover with a tight fitting lid. This will simmer for about 20 minutes at which time I turned off the heat, uncovered, and fluffed after about 3 minutes. Since there was broccoli in the rice we omitted an extra vegetable and just had the chicken with it.

     The rice was as good as Rice-A-Roni can be, there isn’t a lot you can do to improve it so I won’t comment further. The chicken came out moist much like the kabobs did the night before. If you are a beginner in the kitchen, using marinades will help you get through your meals by reducing your chances of over cooking your main ingredient. The lemon part of the lemon pepper marinade was lacking, so we sprinkled a little extra seasoning on the chicken and that seemed to do the trick. Olive oil could replace the vegetable oil next time to give some sweetness to a very peppery dish. I wouldn’t add more seasoning because there was more than enough pepper that came through, perhaps adding some lemon juice during the cooking process would give us the lemony flavor we were looking for.

Rating: Yummy - The marinade needs some work but I'll keep trying.