Chicken with Olives and Lemons

Lately I haven’t had as much time to make dinner. Work has been keeping me very busy, and keeping me from getting home at my usual time. I am still managing to cook almost every night, although I have had to dig into my freezer stash a little more than I would like – for some reason I feel a lot better when the freezer is completely full of frozen meals that I have made – just in case I happen to need them. Well, when I get home at 6:30pm and the kids are starving, isn’t that what the meals are there for? I guess I am afraid of the day when I go downstairs, and the freezer is bare. Unfortunately that is going to happen fairly soon…

I have been behind in pretty much everything lately, including my magazines. I think this recipe from Cooking Light is a couple of months old, but it is a perfect dish to make when you get home from work late, but you want to cook something quick. I loved the lemons on top, and the salty olives were a perfect accompaniment. The kids were not crazy about the chicken only because they thought the flavor was a little strong – but with some rice, my husband and I thought it was a great weeknight dinner, that I was able to serve within 45 minutes of coming home. Now if only I could figure out how to get more food into that freezer downstairs…

Ingredients

2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh garlic
4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, halved crosswise
Cooking spray
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
15 oil-cured olives, pitted and sliced
1 large shallot, sliced
1 lemon, thinly sliced

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400°.

Combine first 4 ingredients in a large zip-top plastic bag. Add chicken to bag; seal. Shake to coat chicken. Marinate 15 minutes at room temperature. Arrange chicken mixture in a broiler-safe 11 x 7inch glass or ceramic baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle chicken evenly with oregano and the next 4 ingredients (through shallot); top with lemon slices. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes.

Remove chicken from oven. Preheat broiler to HIGH.

Place chicken 3 inches from broiler element; broil on HIGH for 3 minutes or until chicken is browned and done.

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3 thoughts on “Chicken with Olives and Lemons”

LOL – I do the same thing with our freezer. I have all of this food in there, but then I tend to not pull it out for use even on the nights I could use it. Maybe it is that fear of having and empty freezer. ;) This looks delicious though and I have been meaning to roast lemons for sometime. I think my kids would love this – they LOVE lemon and olives. Could be a hit for weeknights around here.