Lemon Chicken

(from Emma Levy)

This is a recipe that I made, but has a special place in the Pass It On blog as it's possibly the ONLY dish I ever made for my dad.  When I was in Form 2 (12 years old) at Hutt Intermediate School, I did cooking lessons.  (Actually, a side-bar here, the girls did cooking and sewing and the boys did metalwork and woodwork, which I now can't quite believe!!  Fingers crossed that things are different in schools in 2012!!).  Anyway, we did cooking class for half the year, and you had a partner through that year.  Mine was Nicola, and I'm fairly sure we indulged more in giggling and mucking around than we did in learning how to cook, but at the end of the half year we had to invite a parent, or parents, in for lunch which we would cook and serve to them.  We had to source new recipes that we'd never made before.  As my mum worked in a school (not mine), she wasn't really able to leave during the day, but my dad was usually available as he ran his family's clothing store and could easily pop out.  So dad came along on this day to the cooking room, and Nicola and I each cooked up a meal for her mum and my dad.  All I can remember of the menu is that I made Lemon Chicken.  I found the recipe in the same Junior Cook Book that the CFP came from, and it was DELICIOUS.  The lunch was a great success, and Lemon Chicken found its way into the Levy family repertoire.  In fact, my brother Adam used to say that when I had children all they would eat was Lemon Chicken followed by Chocolate Fudge Pudding.  

Not a bad life, I thought.  

Lemon Chicken (Junior Cook Dinner Book, Mary Pat Fergus)

Ingredients:

6 chicken breasts

1/4 cup flour

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

100g butter

Sauce:

2 tsp soy sauce

1/4 cup oil

A dash of salt & pepper

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 tsp grated lemon rind

1/2 tsp grated green ginger

1.    Turn oven on to 180C (350F).

2.    Lightly grease a large flat baking dish.

3.    Put flour, salt & pepper into a medium size paper bag.

4.    Toss chicken in bag, one piece at a time.

5.    Arrange in a single layer in the baking dish.

6.    Melt butter in a small pan. 

7.    Pour it all over the chicken. (these days I spray with olive oil spray instead)

8.    Put in oven.

9.    Bake for 30 mins.

10.  Meanwhile, mix soy sauce, oil salt, pepper, lemon juice, rind and ginger in a bowl.

11.  Take chicken out of the oven.

12.  Turn chicken pieces over.

13.  Pour sauce over chicken.

14.  Bake for 30 mins more.