Chicken with Roasted Broccoli and Lemon

Okay, first things first... confession time. I have seriously been considering not doing my kitchen blog anymore. With Pinterest and Facebook this blog has felt rather redundant to me. Honestly I have a lot of new recipes that I have tried lately but just haven't blogged about. If anyone out there in cyber land cares whether or not this blog lives or dies, let me know. If it is important to you I will keep on keeping on!


Just kidding! We will keep on keeping on!

Speaking of the all powerful and wonderful Pinterest... this recipe was one that I pinned on my board of recipes to try. I may be completely, absurdly obsessed with lemon and almost always check out all of the recipes with lemon in them.

Imagine my intense disappointment when I read the reviews RIGHT before I went to make this dish and found out that a lot of people didn't like it! OH NO! I had already bought the ingredients and was LITERALLY standing in the kitchen. What to do? Well... fix it of course!

What a lot of people complained about was that the lemon made the dish too bitter and that the sauce didn't thicken up. The recipe below is my HEAVILY tailored recipe. If you would like to see the original recipe and the source of the beautiful picture (because we all know that I stink at photography) please visit the following link: http://www.marthastewart.com/340870/chicken-broccoli-and-lemon-stir-fry

CHICKEN WITH ROASTED BROCCOLI AND LEMON
Heavily adapted from Martha Stewart Living
Printer Friendly Version

3 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
2 Tbsp honey
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 to 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper (we used 1/2 tsp)
6 small chicken breast halves
Cooking spray
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp EACH salt and pepper
1 1/2 lbs broccoli, stems trimmed and cut into bite size pieces
1 small lemon, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise, seeds removed
3 1/2 tsp cornstarch dissolved in 1 tbsp water
2 Tbsp sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 425.

Toss broccoli with olive oil and salt and pepper. Place on a cookie sheet in a single layer and roast in oven for 15 minutes or until slightly darkened.

In the meantime, make sure your chicken is completely thawed and dried of excess liquid. Spray a large frying pan with cooking spray and heat on medium-high heat. Add chicken; cover. Cook 5 to 7 minutes on each side or until done (165 degrees F). (Your smaller pieces will most likely take less time.) During the last few minutes of cooking add the lemon slices on top of each piece of chicken. Try to balance them on the chicken without letting them touch the frying pan. Keep covered and finish cooking. Once finished cooking remove pan from heat but keep covered.

While chicken is cooking, mix soy sauce, vinegar, honey, garlic and crushed red pepper in a small sauce pan. Bring to a low boil and add cornstarch mixture. Cook until thickened slightly. Pour over chicken and lemons in frying pan AFTER you have removed the pan from the heat. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Put the lid back on the pan while you are waiting for the broccoli to finish.

Once the broccoli has finished roasting toss it in the pan with the chicken and the lemons. Yes, you can eat the entire lemon and it is delicious. Serve over rice.