Chicken Thighs Baked with Lemon and Fresh Herbs- Đùi Gà Nướng Chanh

 

     This is one of the most flavorful chicken dish I have made for my kids.  Have you tried Sticky Lemon Chicken that I adapted from Gordon Ramsay?  It is delicious too.
     The flavor comes from a combination of sage, thyme, rosemary, garlic, and lemon. I found this recipe in Fine Cooking magazine and it is also published in The Best 50 America Recipes.
     Honestly, you need to restrain yourself from adding extra ingredients in it at the first attempt and acquire a taste for a simple food because it is so simple.  Leftover herbs can be frozen in its own containers for a few months.

Make 3 servings
2 large garlic cloves, finely crushed or mashed
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 Tbs olive oil
6 chicken thighs with skin, bone-in or boneless.
1 large lemon and 1 Tbs lemon juice
A few sprigs of thyme, rosemary, and sage

1. Trim excess fat, wash and wipe the chicken dry, remove feather roots if seeing any.  Mix garlic, salt , pepper and 2 tsp oil together and rub on chicken including underneath skin.  Cover  for at least two hours or over night in the fridge.  Take it out about 1 hour before baking. 
2. Preheat oven to 425 oF with a rack on middle position.  
3. Save 6 pieces (1-1½ inches long) of each rosemary and thyme) and 6  sage leaves.  Coarsely chop 3 large sage leaves.  Remove rosemary needles from 1 sprig by hold it at the top and slide fingers down to the bottom.  Hold the needles together and chop them coarsely to make 1 Tbs  .  Remove leaves from thyme sprigs to get a tsp lightly packed.  Mix herbs and 1 Tbs lemon juice together and rub all over chicken pieces.  
4. Roll a lemon on the counter a few times to make it soft.   Trim and discard both ends, slice into 6 slices. In a large skillet or ovenproof baking dish ( need just large enough to arrange chicken pieces in a layer). Place lemons slices and top each with a sage leaf and a piece of thyme, rosemary. Arrange one chicken thigh atop of a lemon slice with skin side up.  Mix 1 tsp oil with 6 small sage leaves and small pieces of thyme and a few rosemary needles.  Divide oil herbs evenly on tops. 
5. Bake uncover until skin golden crisp and juice runs clear when being poked with a knife or folk  (about 35-40 minutes).  Internal temperature should register at 165-170 oF.  Remove from heat, transfer chicken with herb, lemon slices to a platter.  Cover and let it rest.  Taste and season pan juice with salt pepper if needed and spoon around the chicken pieces (not on the skin) to keep the skin crisp or serve on the side.  If you want thicker sauce, bring the pan juice to a boil and stir constantly until reduce to a thicker sauce.
6. It is served with cooked rice at my home with other side dish.