For His Master's Veneration: Lemon Chicken Stew

or kylling mig sagte citron

with apologies to Roberta Flack!

Ingredients

5 chicken thighs, roughly 2 ½ lbs

½ cup onion chopped

2 celery ribs, cut into 1-inch bias cut (about 1 cup)

1 cup sliced carrots

1 med green pepper diced

1 lemon, juiced

2½ cups chicken broth, homemade or low-sodium

Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbs oil
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
2 Tbs all-purpose flour

Cooked Buttered Noodles

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Prep:

Season the chicken generously with salt and pepper.

Chop the onion, carrots, celery and green pepper.

Scrub the lemon, zest and juice, saving in separate small bowls.

Heat the oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a Dutch oven (12-inch diameter) over medium-high heat. Cook in batches: Brown the chicken pieces on both sides, turning once, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Repeat with remaining chicken. Transfer to plate. If your dutch oven is not a non stick kind, (slave's is not) keep moving the chicken around. In fact many times you can get a nice browning by sliding the meat around in the hot grease!

Reduce the heat to medium, sweat the onions, celery, carrots, and diced pepper until just tender, about 10 minutes. Remember, if you can hear the vegetables sizzle when they hit the pot, the temperature is too high! This is just enough cooking to bring out the flavors and you want to do this any time you are adding vegetables to a soup or roast or crock pot. Just plan on doing this step and everything you cook will taste better.

Add the rosemary, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute more. Add the lemon juice, and scrape up any browned bits that cling to the pan with a wooden spoon. Add the broth, lemon zest, and 1 teaspoon salt and bring just to a boil.

Return the chicken to the pot, and then put the stew in the oven. Cook, uncovered, until the chicken is cooked through, tender, and lightly glazed and brown, about 40 minutes. Baste the chicken occasionally in the last 20 minutes of cooking.

Get your noodles ready to cook in that first 20 minutes before you start to baste. It may take 20 minutes for the water to heat for the pasta!

Meanwhile, use a fork to work the remaining 2 tablespoons butter into the 2 tablespoons flour to make a paste.

Remove the stew from the oven. Remove the rosemary steems and toss it. Arrange the vegetables on a serving platter with the chicken on top. Cover with a piece of foil. (reserving the juices in the pan) Cover with foil.

Place the Dutch oven over medium heat and whisk the butter/flour mixture into the juices until dissolved. Bring to a boil and simmer until thickened. Pour sauce over the chicken and serve immediately with hot buttered noodles.