Fall can be a weird time in Texas when it comes to meal planning. Everything is pumpkin spice and I start yearning for the hearty comfort foods of fall – but it’s still 97 degrees outside. Too hot for soups and chilis.
Enter Ina Garten’s Roasted Chicken with Lemon and Thyme from Go To Dinners. I have always associated thyme with fall, but paired with lemon, this dish is still light enough to feel right on a warm evening.
Since roasting chicken takes time, the first step was to get it in the over. One of the things I’ve learned over time is that when it says to pat the skin dry – do it! I could never get my chicken skin golden and crispy, and its because I never really committed to this step.
Having just acknowledged that skipping steps is bad, you would think I would be more careful in the future. You would be wrong – almost. This recipe refers you to a note on another page about leeks. In my head, if whatever you have to say about leeks is so important, maybe it should also be on this page, but whatever. For the purpose of being able to review the recipe, I dutifully turned to the referenced page and learned that I was to soak the leeks to remove the dirt.
I, of course, was already running behind on dinner and didn’t have time for such things, so I opted to rinse them in the sink. Holy moly! I had no idea leeks were so dirty. I ended up peeling back the stems to get it all clean and it was fine. But had I not read the note, I probably would’ve started chopping the leeks and ended up with some gritty textures in the sauce.
Lesson learned. Maybe.
Anyway, by the time the over timer beeped to let me know my roasted chicken was ready, the sauce was simmering nicely. I pulled the roasting pan out of the oven to marvel over by beautiful, golden chicken thighs, only to be disappointed by the sight of mostly still white, slightly gelatinous chicken skins. Ewww.
The meat was already reading 165 and it still needed more time to cook in the sauce. Not feeling confident that it would miraculously turn golden in the final few minutes in the over, I whipped out a cast iron skillet and browned the skin in some avocado oil before nestling into the sauce.
Tips for Making This Recipe (AKA What I’ll Do Different Next Time)
- Brown the chicken skin in a skillet before going into the oven
- Add chopped thyme to the sauce. I couldn’t taste the thyme at all, which was the flavor I was after.
- Give the chicken more time to cook in the sauce.
The Verdict: Make It Again (With Tweaks)
The sauce sis the star of this dish, and I will make it again just for that reason. As previously noted, I’ll brown the chicken before roasting for more flavor, and double the thyme to get more fall flavor.
Want the recipe? Get your copy of Ina Garten’s Go To Dinners
