I had a lemon, a lime, fresh thyme and some chicken thighs so I googled that and found an interesting recipe. Of course I didn’t follow it, but what I made came out fantastic! One hour to marinate and about 45 minutes to cook. I forgot to photograph, sorry! I’ll post them next time I make this.
Balsamic Citrus Chicken
4 chicken thighs, on the bone with skin (trim off excess fat), seasoned with S/P
Marinade
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar (white if you have it)
1/4 cup Rice Wine Vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
Sauce
1 large or 2 small shallots, thinly sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 of the reserved marinade
1/4 cup dry vermouth (Or white wine, but DO try this with vermouth! It’s cheap and really adds a lovely dimension.)
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves (or you can sub dried – or use Herbes de Provence)
zest of one lemon
Glaze
1/4 cup dry vermouth
1/4 cup chicken stock (I needed a bit more liquid in the glaze and the rice – you can sub water.)
remaining half of marinade
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves (or whatever you’re using)
1 Tbl agave or honey
1 Tbl butter
juice of half a lemon
1 lime cut into thin disks (4-6 depending on size)
juice of remaining half of lemon
1 pack of spicy saffron rice (Mahatma is what I had, but you can use anything that would be good with citrus, like Israeli couscous.)
Preparation
Mix the balsamic vinegar, rice wine vinegar and olive oil in a zip bag and place seasoned (S/P) thighs in flesh side down. Put in the fridge and marinate for about an hour. (FYI, never marinate chicken more than a few hours, it gets mealy.)
Pull out the chicken about 15 minutes before you want to cook to let it warm up a little. While that is resting, get out a skillet to sauté the chicken and an oven safe dish to bake it in (9×9 or 9×12). In the baking dish, put in the rice mix with enough water to cover the rice. Don’t worry about what it says on the package. Prep the shallots, garlic and thyme.
Preheat your oven to 350-375F. Pat dry the chicken and sauté skin side down in a very hot pan with a few turns of olive oil. You may have some sticking from the balsamic vinegar, just do your best to keep the skin intact when you turn the thighs. Just sear the chicken, it will finish in the oven. Remove the chicken to a plate, reduce heat to medium (if you have a lot of rendered fat, you can pour that out and add some fresh olive oil but leave the bits in the bottom of the pan). Add the shallots and garlic and cook until they are soft. Don’t let them burn! Add zest and thyme, vermouth and half the marinade. Bring to a simmer. Add back in the chicken, flesh side down and simmer for about 5 minutes. Turn off heat and remove the chicken to your baking dish with rice. Put the thighs right on top of the rice, then top it with the shallots and garlic from the sauce. It’s ok if there is still sauce left in the pan. Top each thigh with a lime slice (toss the extras on the rice) and squeeze half a lemon over the whole thing. Cover tightly in foil and bake for about 45 minutes, checking at about 20 minutes to see if you need liquid in the rice.
While the chicken and rice is baking, return to your skillet with the leftover sauce. Turn it on high heat and add all the glaze ingredients except butter and lemon juice. Let this simmer until it has reduced by half. When it has reduced, add the butter and lemon juice. When it’s glossy and fairly thick, check seasoning and let it stand in the pan (off heat) until the chicken is done.
When the chicken and rice is cooked (I generally go by the rice, once it’s done the chicken is surely done!), remove and discard the lime rings (or not, whatever you like) and serve with 1/4 of the glaze drizzled over each serving. A good side veg would be broccoli or carrots.