Lemon Chicken Recipes - Healthy Low Fat Chicken Recipes as part of a Healthy Die

Citrus adds sparkle to these easy lemon chicken recipes.

Lemon is a great partner to chicken, giving it a buzz of fragrance and flavour that lifts it out of the ordinary. Use a lemon marinade, or just some of the juice squeezed over, to improve the most basic of chicken dishes, like roasts and grills, or make lemon the central ingredient of a tangy sauce.

Add herbs as well, like fresh tarragon or fresh or dried thyme, to make any of these healthy chicken recipes more aromatic.

Citrus Grilled Chicken
Grilled chicken makes a swift and easy mid-week supper, and is one of the simplest of lemon chicken recipes. Marinading the meat in lemon juice tenderises the chicken, and gives it masses of extra flavour. You can leave the chicken in the marinade overnight if you get organised enough, but if not even 10-15 mins steeping in the lemony mixture will be enough to add that unmistakeable citrus aroma.

Serves 4: 8 chicken pieces, 2 lemons, 2 cloves garlic, crushed, 4 tbsp olive oil.

Put the chicken in a dish. Squeeze the lemons, mix juice with the garlic and oil to make a marinade. Toss chicken in the marinade, cover and refrigerate until needed. Preheat the grill to medium. Put the chicken into the grill pan and spoon over some marinade. Grill the chicken, placing it about 10-15cm (4-6 inches) beneath the heat, and turning once until the skin is crisp and juices run clear when the meat is tested with a knife point.

As a variation, you can use chicken breasts, skinned and cut into cubes before marinading. To cook, thread the cubes on skewers, alternating with cherry tomatoes, baby onions and bay leaves, and grill until the chicken is cooked right through, basting with marinade.

Tangy Lemon Chicken With Mushrooms

Citrus adds freshness to this easy chicken recipe which produces a light, zesty sauce. Perfect with noodles, or serve with grains such as bulgar wheat or cous-cous.

Serves 6: 6 chicken thighs, a little olive oil, 200g (1 cup) baby onions or 2 medium onions quartered,1 level tbsp plain flour200g (2 cups) mushrooms, sliced, 175ml (3/4 cup) chicken or vegetable stock, juice of 1 lemon.

Using a little oil in a non-stick frying pan, brown the chicken thighs. Remove from pan, add a little more oil and brown the onions. Return chicken to pan, sprinkle over the flour and stir around to coat.Add sliced mushrooms. Pour on the lemon juice and hot stock. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to boil, then reduce to simmer. Cover and cook gently for 30 minutes until chicken is cooked through.

Roast Chicken With Lemony Gravy

Cheer up an everyday roast chicken with a zesty citrus gravy. I like this served with grains like quinoa, rice or cous cous, so that the sauce soaks in, but you can partner it with potatoes if you prefer.

Serves 4-6: 1 chicken weighing 1.75 ? 2.25 kg (4-5 lb), 2 lemons, 2 tbsp olive oil, 50g (1/4 cup) butter, 1 tbsp flour, 150ml (1/2 cup) chicken stock

Preheat oven to 350F/180C/gas 4. Cut one of the lemons into four pieces and place inside the chicken carcass. Squeeze the other lemon. Mix half the juice with the olive oil and rub into the chicken skin.

Place in a roasting tin, and cook for 75-90 minutes, basting from time to time, until the skin is browned and the juices run clear when tested with a knife point.

To make the gravy, melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the flour. Cook for a couple of minutes, then gradually stir in the chicken stock and remaining lemon juice, stirring well to incorporate the liquid into the flour mixture to make a smooth sauce. Bring to the boil, stirring, and simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Carve the chicken and serve with the lemony gravy.

Tabbouleh with chicken: Add cubes of cold cooked chicken to a salad of cooked bulgar wheat, spring onions (scallions) and diced cucumber, dressed with an oil and lemon juice mix.

Chicken and potato lemon-dressed salad: Add lemon juice to home made pesto and use to dress a salad of cooked new potatoes and cubed chicken. Serve on a bed of leaves.

Lemon chicken risotto: Add lemon juice to stock and use to cook risotto rice, which absorbs all the flavours. Add finely diced mushrooms while the rice is cooking, and diced cooked chicken. Stir, and keep cooking over a low heat until all is thoroughly heated through.

For more exciting ways to cook chicken, see Healthy Chicken Recipes.

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Baked Chicken Recipes - Healthy Recipes for Baked Chicken Casserole and more

Oven-cooked to crisp and tender perfection, these healthy baked chicken recipes are great for easy dinners.

You can often vary the ingredients according to what's in season, making great use of fresh produce when it's at its best.

Baked chicken recipes are foolproof, very straightforward, and always appetising and satisfying.

Spicy baked chicken casserole with peppers, chick peas and rice

This is a brilliant dish to make for friends because you can leave it to cook for an hour, and end up with the complete meal in one dish.

Choose a light accompaniment, like a green salad, because it?s quite filling. I tend to use canned chickpeas, but if you want to use dried you?ll need to get organised the day before, to soak them in cold water overnight then, next day, simmer for 20 minutes until tender.

Serves 4: Preheat the oven to 400F/200C/gas 6.

Place a large casserole to heat in the oven. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large frying pan, and brown 8 chicken pieces (thighs and drumsticks) all over.

Remove from pan, increase heat and cook 2 sliced yellow peppers and 2 sliced onions until well-browned at the edges.

Add 1 bunch fresh coriander (cilantro), washed and chopped, 3 cloves crushed garlic, 1-2 green chillies, halved, seeded and finely chopped, 3 tsp ground coriander seeds, 100g (1/2 cup) chick peas, 175g (1 cup) basmati rice. Stir well.

.Pour in the juice of 1 large lemon, and 275ml (1 ? cups) chicken stock and bring to the boil. Carefully pour this mixture into the pre-heated casserole.

Stir in 100g (3/4 cup) pitted green olives.

Place the chicken pieces on top, cover and bake for 50-60 minutes until the rice is cooked.

Every cook needs to know how to make baked chicken for those days when you just want to make something that you can put in the oven and forget about until it?s time to eat.

Slow-baked Aromatic Chicken

This is a speedier version of an Italian recipe from Orvieto.

The beauty of this dish is that you can stick it in the oven and forget about it for 90 minutes. Don't panic at the amount of garlic, it turns sweet and mild as it bakes, and the meat ends up meltingly tender.

If there's any left over, you can take the meat off the bone and use it in a pasta sauce the next day.

Serves 6: 6 chicken legs, each cut into 2 pieces, 220g (1 cup) cherry tomatoes, halved, 24 cloves of garlic (no need to skin them),100g (1 cup) black olives, stoned, large handful fresh basil, olive oil.

Heat the oven to 350F/180C/gas 4. Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper, and pack tightly, in a single layer, into a roasting tin.

Scatter over the halved tomatoes, black olives, garlic and chopped basil. Pour over a fine line of olive oil.

Bake the dish for around 90 minutes, until the chicken is very tender and falling off the bone.

Serve with new potatoes or pasta. Leave the garlic cloves whole, and let people squish out the juicy innards with their forks as they eat.

Oven-baked Chicken with Vegetables

This is one of those dead simple baked chicken recipes that couldn?t be easier for a satisfying one-dish mid-week meal.

You can use any vegetables that are suitable for baking, such as onions, potatoes, carrots, butternut squash, bell peppers, aubergine (eggplant) or courgette (zucchini).

Some of the more tender veg cook quite quickly, and you might need to add them part-way through the cooking time. If you use potatoes, you won?t need an accompaniment, but if not try serving the dish with rice.

Serves 4: Preheat the oven to 400F/200C/gas 6. Trim any excess fat off 8 chicken thighs and put into a roasting tin with vegetables cut into chunks.

Sprinkle over 1 tbsp fresh chopped rosemary (or 2 tsp dried) and brush with oil.

Bake for approx 1 hr until meat is tender.

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