Recipe for Rao’s Lemon Chicken My Way with help from Cook’s Illustrated. Serves 6-8. Takes about 2 hours with 1 of those spent brining the chicken.
4 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts cut in two
8 bone-in, skin on chicken thighs
1 tsp. vegetable or olive oil
4 tbsp. unsalted butter
2 large shallots, in tiny dice
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 tsp. flour (I use Wondra)
At least 2 cups chicken broth, divided.
8 tsp. grated lemon zest plus ½ cup juice (from 4 lemons)
2 tbsp. fresh Italian parsley leaves, chopped
2 tsp. fresh oregano leaves
1. Dissolve salt in 2 quarts cold water in pot or container large enough to submerge all the chicken pieces. Put all the chicken in the brine, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Remove the chicken from the brine and dry thoroughly.
2. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 475 degrees. (This can be done later in the process if you are delaying the final cooking of the chicken).
3. Heat oil in a 12 inch skillet over medium high heat until just smoking. In batches, place chicken skin side down in skillet and cook until skin is well-browned and crisp, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer browned chicken to a large plate. Set aside.
4. Pour off and discard the fat in the skillet. Return the skillet to medium heat: add butter, shallots, garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Sprinkle flour over the shallot garlic mixture evenly and cook, stirring constantly until the flour is very lightly browned, about 1 minute. Slowly stir in the broth and the lemon juice, scraping up the brown bits and bring to a simmer. Cook until the sauce is slightly reduced and thickened, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in 1 tbsp. of the lemon zest and remove the skillet from heat. Assuming your skillet cannot hold all the chicken you are cooking, put the sauce into the bottom of a roasting pan. Put the cooked chicken, skin side up and above the surface of the sauce, and any accumulated juices into the roasting pan. You can halt the cooking process here and pick it up, your oven at 475 degrees, 15 minutes or so before serving.
5. Prepare the chopped parsley and oregano and add the remaining lemon zest to the herbs.
6. Cook the chicken, uncovered until the breasts register 160 degrees and the thighs 175 degrees which takes about 12 to 15 minutes.
Remove the skillet or roasting pan from the oven.
7. Transfer the chicken to a serving platter. Whisk sauce, incorporating any browned bits from the sides of the pan and adding chicken stock until it reaches a smooth and homogeneous consistency, about 3 minutes. Whisk half of the herb-zest mixture into the sauce. Sprinkle the remaining half over the chicken. Carefully pour the sauce around the chicken. Serve, passing the remaining sauce separately.
