Helllllllllooooooooooo....... Happy July!!!!!!!! What?????Wait a minute......... It's July already?????? What happened to April, May , June ????????? It's crazy when you think of it, half the year has gone by????? Phew!!!!!!! I'm about a month into my healthy eating plan, or shall I say,' trying' to eat healthy plan, and it's been going great. Got to remind you, healthy for me means just a healthier option like maybe 80 % of the time. I cheat on the weekends you know, mostly, there's just too much happiness about a Saturday and Sunday and I feel almost compelled to cook something very rich, greasy, and totally unhealthy and against my healthy eating plan. Luckily, I'm getting a hold of my cravings these days and eating healthy has sort of become a regular thing now.
I love to bake, of course you know that, but I mean not just cakes, I love to bake chicken, lamb, fish... There's something so charming about a dish that's been baked to perfection, the texture, the moistness, the absence of oil and all that jazz. SIGH....... I wish I could find a baked recipe for everyday...........
I tried this baked chicken a while ago and sadly didn't make the time to post it. I loooooooved, loved the idea of using a yogurt marinade, mixed with a bunch of herbs and to let it bake in the oven to a perfect brown. When I came across this recipe here, thanks to my pinterest interest, he he, I couldn't wait to try it. I modified the recipe using what ingredients I had readily available in my kitchen and I was elated with the way the dish turned out. I think this recipe is going to be a favourite. Nah, that's lie...... it already IS.
I used chicken with skin, ah hem, I know, not a very healthy option, but chicken with skin tastes so much better when you bake a chicken. I used legs and thighs, but you could use any chicken pieces, also without skin will turn out almost as tasty, and minus all the guilt . You don't really need to marinate the chicken for too long, even 20 mins will do, that's what I did. If you have the time, you can marinate it longer, even overnight. You can make the marinade and mix it with the chicken and toss it all in a zip lock and let it sit in the fridge overnight.
Making the marinade was hardly any trouble. It was like taking a few of my favourite ingredients and making an alluring concoction. Delightful!!!!!!!!! To a good amount of yogurt, I mixed in all my flavourings. First I added a good amount of lemon zest. I have a zester something like this, which works really well and makes this job reallllly easy. I love using it to get some orange zest as well, nice, pretty and long strands.
Get the lemon zest first, before you cut the lime. You could use a vegetable peeler as well to get the zest. Once you have the zest, squeeze out the juice of the lime.
Next, to go into the marinade was garlic. Garlic and yogurt is such a great combination for savoury dishes , don't you think. The garlic needs to be chopped really small, so you don't bite into chunks of it. I used a small grater for the garlic and this is so much simpler than worrying about not chopping the garlic small enough.
Then, a really favourite part of the marinade was adding the herbs. You can use any fresh or dry herbs you have, in small quantities. I often fancy having a fresh herb garden in my kitchen balcony. How very pleasant it would be if I could just step out into my kitchen garden and pick fresh herbs for my cooking. Thinking of it, I must try growing a patch of herbs in my garden.
For the herbs, I used fresh basil and corriander,roughly chopped , though in hindsight finely would be better. I also added dry oregano. You could use parsley, rosemary and thyme. It almost reminds me of Simon and Garfunkel; Have to been to Scarborough fair ?
And of course, the usual, salt and pepper. And a good stir. To prepare the chicken, once washed and patted dry, I scored them well, so they could absorb all the lovely flavours. After having the patience to let them marinate for only about 20 mins, I let them bake in a moderate oven for about 40 mins.
As they turned brown, I could barely wait for them to get cooked. And to make my meal complete, I toasted some bread, stir fried some vegetables, added a couple of baked chicken pieces and truly relished my meal. I think you will enjoy this dish just as much as I did.
So ingredients and recipe :
You will need :
Chicken pieces with skin, fairly large pieces : 700 gms ( Use skinless if you prefer)
Zest and juice of one lime
4 cloves of garlic
Yogurt : 300 gms
1/2 tbsp dried oregano
A bunch of fresh corriander and basil , chopped.
How to :
1. Wash the chicken and pat dry using a kitchen towel. Score the meat, using a sharp knife
2. To make the marinade, in a bowl, mix the yogurt with the zest of one lime. Add the juice of the lime and grate in the garlic. Toss in the chopped herbs, salt and pepper to taste
3. Mix the chicken with the marinade and let it sit in the fridge for about 20 mins.
4. Preheat the oven to 180 C. Place the marinated chicken with the marinade, on a baking tray, greased just a bit. Bake the chicken pieces for about 40 -60 mins, till the chicken is thoroughly cooked.
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