Grandma Rose's Lemon Italian Chicken

Total Time: 1 hr Preparation Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 45 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 6
• 4 lbs roasting chickens, cut into 8 portions
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small carrot, minced
• 1 small onion, minced
• 4 tablespoons italian parsley, minced
• 6 fresh sage leaves or 6 dried sage
• 1 lemon zest, shredded
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 1/16 teaspoon ground cloves (pinch only)
• 3/4 cup chopped fresh tomatoes or 3/4 cup canned tomato, drained and chopped
• 2/3 cup chicken broth (or drained tomato juices)
• 5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (divided)

Recipe

• 1 rinse and dry the chicken pieces well. heat the oil in a large frypan over medium high heat, slip in the pieces of chiken skin side down, not letting them touch each other.
• 2 brown over medium heat or lower adjusting the temperature so the chicken colours slowly taking about 15 minutes to reach a nice amber colour.
• 3 sprinkle with a little salt and pepper as they cook, then turn with a wooden fork and spatula, try not to pierce the chicken and letting out the juices. we are only browning the chicken well at this stage.
• 4 remove the browned chicken to a large platter.
• 5 pour off all but a few tablespoons of the fat.
• 6 place the frypan over medium heat and add the carrot, onion, parsley, and sage leaves, and cook until the onion starts to turn golden brown.
• 7 stir in the lemon zest and keep stirring until onion is deep golden.
• 8 taking care not too burn the brown bits and glaze on the bottom of frypan.
• 9 blend in the minced garlic, a pinch of ground cloves, the tomatoes, and liquid of choice ( water, canned drained juices, or chicken broth).
• 10 scraping the liquid into the brown bits to free up.
• 11 add the chicken back into the frypan with 2 tablespoons only of lemon juice, bring all to a gentle simmer bubble.
• 12 cover the pan and cook another 15 minutes.
• 13 uncover the pan now and cook the last ten minutes, turning all the pieces to keep moist, and condensing down.
• 14 the sauce should be thickened and clinging to the chicken pieces.
• 15 now ready to serve have a hot platter ready.
• 16 sprinkle the remaining 2 to 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice over the chicken taste for salt and pepper.
• 17 pile the chicken onto the plater and moisten all the pieces with pan juices.
• 18 sprinkle with extra minced parsley.