Day 12: Roasted Chicken Breasts with Preserved Lemon, Green Beans w/ Gremolata, and Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

The preserved lemon is key in the chicken recipe. You CANNOT substitute normal lemons, but it is worth the effort to track down the hard to find preserved ones.

Roasted Chicken Breasts with Preserved Lemon
Green Beans with Lemon, Garlic, and Parmigiano Gremolata
Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

I am starting a new plan of attack with these recipes. Many of the recipes, while so simple at first glance, actually contain items that are quite expensive. So I am looking through the book and trying to cluster all of the recipes that, say, used preserved lemon or fresh basil. This sounds simple enough, but so far I have been mostly just picking items that sounded good for dinner that night. Onto the recipes....

I have been intrigued by this roasted chicken recipe that used preserved lemons since I first opened the cookbook. What were preserved lemons, why hadn't I noticed them before? Turns out they cost almost $7 for just two of them, so that might have had a lot to do with why I hadn't used them before! I keep reading that they are used quite a bit in Moroccan cooking. And the clincher is, they are so easy to make very, very cheaply- they're just salt and lemons! But they take 3 weeks to preserve and I wanted to try my recipe now.

This is one of the most successful dishes I have made so far out of this cookbook. You start with 1/2 -3/4 of a preserved lemon, chop that up in the food processor with olive oil, cilantro, garlic, and cumin seeds. Spread this mixture over bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts, sprinkle with lots of pepper, then slow roast for close to an hour at 300 F, basting occaisionally. I didn't even baste until the end because the lemon mixture stayed right on the breasts. The chicken came out so flavorful and juicy, it is hard to describe how juicy. I guess it is the combination of the skin-on, bone-in and the slow roasting that does the trick. And the preserved lemon does not disappoint! It was tangy, it was salty, it was lemony without the pucker face, is all I can say.

The green beans were a really nice match for the chicken because they had lemon and garlic and well. Quick saute the beans in olive oil first and then add a little water and cook, covered for 15 minutes or so. Food process the zest of 1 lemon, a handful of flat-leaf parsley, garlic, salt, and pepper. Add just half the mix to the cooking beans. Mix the other half with a 1/2 cup of grated parmigiano. When you take the beans off, toss with the remaining lemon/cheese mix. Again, this was easy and tasty and went well with the chicken.

Finally, I wanted to try another salad dressing and the Honey Mustard variation on the basic vinaigrette did not disappoint. I hand whisked up all of the ingredients in a little bowl and tossed just before serving. The secret with this one is that just a little bit of mayo made it nice and creamy.

Hands down this was Trevor's favorite meal so far. I was pretty happy with it too.

24 recipes down in the Splendid Table's How To East Supper.