Wednesday Night Chicken

I just realized it has been over four months since I have posted a cooking blog. It's not that I haven't been cooking, it just that I have been either cooking recipes I already posted, mixed up a few things that weren't worth writing about, or just didn't get around to it. So today I finally decided to add a recipe for a pretty decent chicken dish I made a couple months ago.

I highly suggest using a cast iron skillet for this one. If you don't have one, go buy one. Besides being pretty handy for searing meat, making stir fry or transferring dishes from stovetop to the oven, they also make a pretty good home security device. I remember reading a story in the paper when I was younger while living in South Jersey, about the demise of a would-be robber. He had broken into some little old ladies house in a nearby town in the hopes of making off with some jewelry or petty cash. While he was rifling through her drawers, grandma retrieved her handy cast iron skillet from the kitchen, snuck up behind him, and with one blow, ended not only his career in B&E, but he died almost immediately.

I never did understand why people feel the need to break into a house for such a low payout. The risk versus the reward didn't seem worth it. But maybe to the meth-addled brains of some of these jackwagons, making off with a ruby necklace is worth a stretch at the local pound-me-in-the-ass facility or ending up dead on the floor as a result of blunt force trauma to the cranium. But I digress, back to the recipe.

Originally I made this with a 1/4 cup of lemon juice. The ending result was borderline sour jacks candy tartness. I suggest starting with a couple of tablespoons and working up from there for your desired result. Other than seizure-type twitching from my eyelids from some of the sourness, the dish turned out to be pretty damn tasty.

Ingredients
4 chicken breast halves with skin (bone in or boneless will work)
5 teaspoons ground cumin
4 Tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup orange juice
2 teaspoons grated orange peel
1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Preparation
Preheat your oven to 425. With your fingertips or a small sharp knife, lift the skin of each chicken breast to loosen. Sprinkle each chicken breast with a teaspoon of cumin and some salt and pepper to taste. Rub seasoning both beneath and on top of the skin.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in your cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Put the chicken breasts, skin side down, in the pan and cook until the skin browns, approximately 5 minutes. Turn chicken over and turn off your stove. Place the cast iron skillet containing the chicken breasts in the oven and roast until the chicken is cooked through. Should take about 15 minutes, or you can use one of those handy meat temperature gauges to make sure it is done.

Transfer the chicken to a plate. Then put the cast iron skillet back on the stove. Make sure you use a pot holder to grab the handle since it is piping hot out of the oven. Add your remaining olive oil to the pan drippings and then add the garlic and saute for 30 seconds or so, until it begins to turn translucent. Add the chicken broth, orange juice, lemon juice, orange peel, lemon peel, and about a teaspoon of cumin. Boil the mixture, stirring occasionally, until it is reduced to about a cup. Poor this sauce over your chicken breasts and then sprinkle with the cilantro. Serve. This dish goes well with some wild rice or a yellow rice pilaf. Throw in some steamed spinach or other green on the side and you got yourself a pretty sweet Wednesday night meal.