Garden-Fresh Chicken

Since moving to our new house, my plants have been thriving! We have so much sun on our back deck and a hose very conveniently located. So that gives me much more to cook and figure out with the abundance of herbs I have shooting up everywhere. Yes, I dry some out... but I really like the taste and smell of fresh herbs in our food.

So the other day I used three of my herbs in a delicious chicken recipe! It was pretty good and VERY simple. And the result was this crispy, charbroiled, fresh, healthy(ish) chicken thigh (see below).

If you didn't have fresh herbs growing in your backyard or at your local grocery store, you can always used dried herbs. I've done it and it's just as good. But I needed to use my fresh ones up! 

I chose to combine rosemary, sweet basil, and thyme. Other herbs that would work great with that combination would be oregano or parsley. Make sure you rinse the herbs, pull the leaves, and loosely chop. 

Combine your herbs (1/4-1/2 cup worth) with the juice from one lemon, some olive oil, 2-3 cloves of garlic (unless you get lucky and get a HUGE, MONSTROUS clove like mine), a dollop of dijon mustard, salt and pepper. Combine the ingredients and spread on all sides of the chicken. You could do thighs or breasts. If you want, pull the skin up and rub the herb mixture underneath. I didn't and found it still tasted crispy and good. 

You could either bake your chicken at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or do as I did and GRILL! It's too dang hot to turn my oven on. I grilled each side for about 10 minutes. The way to do chicken on the grill is medium heat. It gets you a crispy skin, while keeping the center moist. 

That's about it. It's garden-fresh, easy-peasy food! We ate it alongside rice and broccoli. What are some recipes you like to use your fresh herbs on? 

Garden-Fresh Chicken

• 4-5 Chicken breasts or thighs, bone-in, skin-on
• 1/4-1/2 cup of fresh herbs
• rosemary
• parsley
• basil
• thyme, etc. 
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• the juice from one lemon
• 1 tablespoon of dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil, or more until smooth consistency 
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Blend or process the herbs, chopped garlic, lemon juice, dijon mustard, salt and pepper. Pour in olive oil until you reach a smooth consistency. 
2. Rub the mixture over both sides and/or under the skin of each piece of chicken. 
3. Grill the chicken on medium heat for 10 minutes on each side or until done.