Heck Ya! It's Elevated (Easy) Lemon Chicken Time!

Are you ready to grilll!!!!! I'm so ready. For several weeks this winter our grill was litterally incased in ice. I would have gone out and taken a picture but the patio was covered in ice as well and I was terrified of slipping. Anyway, 90% of our ice is melted and it's time to start grilling. (By the way, this recipe also works on the stove top especially if you have a grill pan).

This Lemon Garlic Grilled Chicken is everyone's favorite way to eat chicken thighs. Its flavors are complex enough that you can serve it to company while it comes together quickly enough to be a weeknight staple. The thing that you can do to elevate this recipe is to use good quality dried herbs de Provence. Although by no means necessary, I particularly like using blends that contain a bit of dried lavender or adding a pinch of dried lavender to your standard herbs de Provence blend.

Note about Messy Grilling:

If you don't use a grill basket for your lemon and garlic, then grilling the garlic for lemon chicken is a bit of an art. We don't use a grill basket because we don't want more things to clean. To follow this method you're going to have to be strategic about your placement on the grill so that things don't fall through. Or you can just throw the garlic away and not worry about it. (I usually lose about 1/3 of my garlic in the grill. Shhh don't tell anyone.)

Note about Herb de Provence:

A good herb and spice blend makes an actual difference in your cooking because the better the quality of the herbs were when they were dried, the better they will taste. If you have the option, I really like adding a pinch of dried lavender as it elevates this recipe. You can use a spice blend without it and add your own, or skip it all together. If you don't have herbs de Provence and you don't want to buy anything else, you can just use dried thyme, dried rosemary, and dried oregano mixed together.

Note about What to Serve with Lemon Garlic Chicken

We eat this chicken with everything (including boxed mac and cheese), but we especailly LOVE serving it along side grilled zucchini or other grilled veggies. Just grill the veggies first and set aside while grilling the chicken. If you decide to go all out and serve this meal with some homemade foccacia, call me first and I'll come over for dinner.

Lemon Garlic Grilled Chicken

Significantly Adapted from Jennifer Steinhaur's Weeknight Lemon Chicken breasts with herbs, NYT Cooking

Prep time 10. minutes. Grill time 15 minutes. Time marinating: 2 hours to 1 day.

Ingredients

about 1.5 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup dry white wine

4 large cloves of garlic

1.5 teaspoons Diamond kosher salt (or 3/4 teaspoon table salt)

1 tablespoon dried herbs de Provence (+1/4 teaspoon dried lavender)

1 large lemon

fresh pepper to taste

STEP ONE

Cut your lemon into thin rounds (between 1/4 and 1/8th of an inch thick and remove any seeds). Smash your 4 cloves garlic with the flat side of a knife. You don't want the garlic breaking up too much, because you're going to grill the bigger pieces.

STEP TWO

In a measuring cup or small mixing bowl add 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup white wine, 1.5 teaspoons diamond kosher salt, 1 tablespoon herbs de provence and a few grinds of fresh pepper. Mix to combine.

STEP THREE

Using either a large mixing bowl or a gallon sized sealable plastic bag, place your chicken thighs in the bag and then add the lemon, and garlic. Then pour the dressing over top. If using a mixing bowl, mix ingredients together with your hands or seal your freezer bag and massage ingredients around the chicken until evenly distributed.

STEP FOUR

Allow chicken to marinate for 2-24 hours. The longer it sits the better it will taste.

STEP FIVE

Preheat grill on medium high. Spread chicken thighs out on the hottest part of the grill and either space garlic and lemon slices around the grill or add lemon and garlic to a grill basket. Grill chicken for about 7 minutes on each side until tempearture reads 165 on a meat thermometer. Grill lemon slices and garlic until they take on color and begin to blister a bit. Plate and serve!

Weeknight Sheet Pan Ravioli (It's Magic)

I cook a lot AND I'm a messy cook. As a result, I feel like I spend a silly amount of time cleaning up the kitchen. So when I find a recipe that uses 1 sheet pan, can be assembled in 10 minutes, and requires zero extra cleanup, then I'm so happy. When I find out that the whole family loves the recipe enough to have it in regular rotation, I am ecstatic. It's magic. I think that you deserve a little magic too. My only complaint about this dish is that because of the cheese top, it was tricky to take photos of. Please don't let my photos keep you from enjoying this meal. Weeknight Sheet Pan Ravioli has all the warm, cheesy goodness you need on a cold day. And please don't skip the golden raisins, especially if you're using a spicy pasta sauce. The raisins are just such a lovely surprise, balancing out all the salty-cheesy-umami goodness with little pop of sweetness.

This recipe is adapted from Hot Sheet by Olga Massov and Sanae Lemoine. I'm a huge fan of their new cookbook and when I first saw this recipe, I knew I had to make it. That said, their version uses 3 bowls and had some glaring errors. I cut cleanup down to a snap (you'll need zero bowls) and fixed the ratios. The result is the recipe below.

Note about Beans:

We really prefer small white beans for this recipe. Navy beans or any other variety will do. This is not a place to use homemade beans, we're about speed here, so grab a can.

Note about Pasta Sauce:

We love using spicy vodka sauce or spicy arrabbiata for this recipe, but we've also all been very happy with a simple (not spicy) marinara sauce.

Note about Capers:

The original recipe called for capers. I'm generally a fan, but not all of my kids are. We tried this recipe with half capers half not. We didn't think that the capers worked that well. If you love capers, and they would fit with the pasta sauce that you choose to use, then you can add 2 tablespoons when you add the raisins.

Weeknight Sheet Pan Ravioli

Prep time 10 minutes. Cook time 30-40 minutes. Serves 6

Adapted from Hot Sheet: Sweet and Savory Sheet Pan Recipes for Everyday and Celebrations (2024) by Olga Massov and Sanae Lemoine

Ingredients

1 cup (4 ounces) shredded low moisture mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup (1.5 ounces) shredded Parmesan cheese

24-26 ounces frozen cheese ravioli straight from the freezer (packaging amounts vary)

1 can 15.5 ounces small white beans rinsed and drained

1/3 cup golden raisins

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

Fresh pepper to taste

1/3 cup heavy cream

24 ounce jar pasta sauce

chopped parsley for serving (optional)

STEP ONE

Preheat oven to 400 and use olive oil to grease bottom of a sheet pan. Grate 1 cup mozzarella cheese and 1/2 cup of Parmesan, set aside

STEP TWO

Spread ravioli out in an even layer on the greased pan. Spread rinsed and drained beans over ravioli. Evenly spread golden raisins on top of the beans and ravioli. Next, drizzle 2ish tablespoons of olive oil over ravioli-bean-raisins and then drizzle 1/3 cup heavy cream over that. Spoon jarred sauce evenly over the whole thing, and then sprinkle cheeses evenly over that.

STEP THREE

Bake for 30 minutes and check to see if cheese has begun to take on a golden color and sauce is boiling around the sides. Continue baking until cooked through (I've used a meat thermometer to test that ravioli has come to temperature. It always has). Remove pan from oven, sprinkle parsley over top and allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Chocolate-Pecan Bangers AKA Crispy Chocolate-Pecan Cookies

Last fall, as we moved from our home of 7 years stayed with my mother in law, then moved into a short-term rental, and then, finally, into our new home in a new town and new state. Through out that turmoil we survived on three things: takeout hamburgers, Garlicy-Lemon Grilled Chicken (I'll post that recipe when it's warm) and Chocolate-Pecan Bangers.

I hesitated about sharing a cookie recipe that contains eggs, especially when I have posted a beautiful soft and chewy vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe on this site, but I'm doing it anyway because if you have even just 1 egg, these are the cookies to make. You won't regret it.

These cookies are crispy heaven with just a hint of gooeyness in the middle. They're not nut-heavy, but they're subtly nutty. They're based on Sarah Kieffer's world-changing chocolate cookie recipe where she introduced us all to pan-banging. (If you don't know what that is, check out Sarah's website or see my explanation below.) I've tweaked Sarah's recipe a bit since I don't love giant, super salty cookies and really like the addition of chopped pecans. So, if salty giant cookies are your thing, check out Sarah's recipe, or, if not, try mine. Or maybe live a little and try both. :)

NOTE FOR PAN-BANGING VIRGINS

Pan-banging is a way to get flat, crispy and chewy cookies. All you need to do to achieve this perfect cookie is to pull your pan out of the oven at three intervals and smack your tray three times on a heat safe/bang proof counter or stove top. The goal is to get the cookies flat and crinkly.

NOTE ABOUT CHOCOLATE

My absolute favorite chocolate for this recipe is Guittard Semi-Sweet baking wafers. These are pricey (about $10.00 a bag when I wrote this), but you don't need a ton and they definitely elevate the cookie. You can certainly use a different semi-sweet or bitter sweet chocolate wafer or chunk or just chop your own chocolate. However, you should not use regular chocolate chips as they will not give you the lush chocolate puddles that make this recipe perfect.

NOTE ABOUT BUTTER

I like these with either European style butter (like Kerry Gold) or American (like Land o' Lakes) style butter. You'll get a slight variation in texture with a slightly thinner cookie with the European style, but both work well.

NOTE ABOUT SALT

My family perfers these cookies without flaked fluer de sel on top. If you'd like to salt your cookies, then cut back on the amount of kosher salt in the cookies to 1 teaspoon instead of 1 and 1/2 teaspoons. Flaked salt should be sprinkled over cookies as soon as they're done baking.

Chocolate-Pecan Bangers

Makes about 30 (2 tablespoon) cookies. It takes 10 minutes to make the batter, 10-20 minutes to chill the dough, and then 12-30 minutes to bake all the cookies.

Adapted from Sarah Kieffer's Pan-Banging Chocolate Chip Cookies in "Vanilla Bean Blog"

Ingredients

2 sticks unsalted butter ideally at "cool" room temperature

1 and 1/2 cups granulated white sugar (300 grams)

1/4 cup lightly packed light brown or dark brown sugar (50 grams)

1 egg from the fridge is fine

1 and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste or extract

2 tablespoons tap water

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour (scooped or use a scale and measure 280 grams)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 and 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (OR 1 teaspoon kosher salt and fleur de sel to finish)

1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans (2 ounces or 60 grams)

6oz or 1 and 1/4 cups bittersweet or semi sweet wafers or chopped chocolate

STEP ONE

Chop your pecans into 1/4 inch pieces. Preheat a large pan on medium low on the stove. Add pecans to preheated pan and toast for about 3-5 minutes making sure to stir so that your nuts don't begin to burn. You want them to start smelling and just begin to take on color. Once they start to take on color, remove from heat immediately and set them aside to cool while you start to make your cookies.

STEP TWO

Using a stand mixer or a hand mixer cream butter for about 1 minute. Add 1 and 1/2 cups white sugar and 1/4 cup packed brown sugar to the butter and beat again on medium until fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). Add egg, 1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla, and 2 tablespoons water to butter-sugar mixture and beat until combined. Next, sprinkle the 2 cups plue 2 tablespoons of flour over top of the wet ingredients, then sprinkle the 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of salt and the 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda over top of the flour. Mix on low until combined. Lastly, add 6 ounces of chocolate wafers, chocolate morsels, or chopped chocolate and 1/2 cup of chopped toasted pecans. Mix just to combine.

STEP THREE

While your oven preheats to 350 (about 10-15 minutes) you're going to portion out your cookies. If you're baking two pans of cookies at a time, then portion dough into sixteen 2 tablespoon sized balls (a number 40 cookie scoop is ideal for this) and place cookie dough balls on a tray in the freezer.  If you're doing just one tray at a time, portion eight cookies and chill in the freezer.

STEP FOUR The rest of your dough can rest in the fridge in the mixing bowl or it can be portioned out as well and stored in the fridge until you're ready to use it.The goal is just to chill your dough, I use the freezer for the first round of cookies so that they're ready faster. If you don't want to mess with the freezer, then you could also just refridgerate your dough for 20-30 minutes.

STEP THREE

Once your oven is preheated, space out your chilled cookie dough balls on a parchment lined cookie sheet. You should be able to fit 8 cookies on a pan with about 2-3 inches between each cookie. I highly recommend using a rimmed sheet pan for this so you don't have the parchment paper sliding around so much when you bang your cookies.

STEP FOUR

You're going to bake your cookies for about 10-13 minutes, but you've got to break up the baking time with your pan banging. Each pan-banging requires 3 smart smacks on a safe surface. You're going to want to bang your cookies 3-4 times in total. The easiest way to do this is to set a timer for 5 minutes, bang your pan(s). then 3 minutes, bang your pan, and 3 more minutes or when you remove them from the oven. The edges should look crisp and have taken on color but the center is still gooey.

Allow cookies to cool. Once cooled cookies keep 4-5 days stored on the counter top in an airtight storage container. I've mailed these cookies cross country and they travel very well.