Skillet Roasted Mediterranean Chicken
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This is a classic Italian recipe for Mediterranean style skillet-roasted chicken made on the stovetop using fresh garlic cloves, freshly juiced lemons, fresh herbs, and white wine. It is the absolute epitome of Italian cooking, which uses simple, unfussy ingredients to yield truly outstanding flavor.
The chicken is tender and flavorful, and I promise you will love it!
Ingredients
- Whole chicken, cut up or whatever pieces you’d like to use (~3.5 to 4 pounds total)
- Fresh herbs (use dried in a pinch): rosemary, sage, and parsley
- Garlic cloves (4 to 5 total)
- Salt
- Pepper
- Lemons (4 to 5 total)
- White wine
- Olive oil (optional)
The combination of lemon, herbs, wine, and garlic here with chicken is hard to beat in my opinion!
I added just a drizzle of olive oil at the end – it’s completely optional – this chicken recipe doesn’t require any oil and you won’t miss it.
Overview
Although this chicken dish isn’t necessarily a fast dish (it takes about 50 minutes to cook), I like it ease of making because although it does cook relatively slowly, so you must tend to the stove, you can definitely multitask nearby as the chicken cooks because of the more gentle heat. And so you can make side dishes, clean up, etc
- To start, nestle the chicken pieces, garlic and herbs into a 10 inch pan. The chicken should not overlap but it’s okay if it fits snugly.
- Cook the chicken gently over the next 50 minutes or so – I used mostly medium heat but turned it up now and then to burn off juices.
- The chicken should be turned gently every 5 minutes or so, allowing some of the natural fats and juices to come through.
- It’s very important to keep the chicken uncovered if you’re cooking a chicken sold in the US – chances are that the chicken is injected with salt water to keep it juicy and so if you cover it, the tendency is for the chicken to release all of its juices, resulting in a dry chicken.
- After gently heating for about 15 minutes, you will add half of the white wine, followed by the other half when the first half of the wine cooks off. You may need to raise the heat to cook off the wine.
- This will be repeated with the lemon juice. Again, if juices begin the build up, turn up the heat, because we don’t want the chicken to have too much liquid at the bottom.
The result is a very succulent, flavorful and tender dish that you will love!
Tips and Customization
- Garlic Italian chicken: Add more garlic
- Spicy: Add red pepper flakes
- Herbs: customize to your liking..use any combination of parsley, rosemary, sage.
Side Dish Suggestions
📖 Recipe
Skillet Roasted Mediterranean Chicken
Equipment
- 10 inch skillet
Ingredients
- 3.5 to 4 pounds chicken bone in breasts, legs, thighs, wings (assorted to your liking)
- 0.5 tablespoon salt use enough to generously coat your chicken!
- 2 teaspoons black pepper
- 4 cloves garlic smashed and sliced
- 3 large springs fresh rosemary
- 1 large handful of fresh sage
- 4 to 5 large lemons juiced (reserve one for garnish)
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1 large bunch fresh parsley chopped for garnish
Instructions
- Smash garlic and slice or chop into small pieces
- Juice all lemons – leave 1/2 lemon aside and slice it for garnish
- Arrange chicken in skillet in a single layer (ok if it's snug) with herbs and garlic
- Place over medium heat for about 15 minutes – shake pan gently to ensure the chicken does not stick and turn chicken every 10 minutes or so.
- Once the chicken starts to warm up it will release some juices and fats making it easier to turn and preventing sticking
- After about 15 minutes, add half of the wine and continue cooking and gently turning chicken until the wine cooks off, then add the other half of the wine and repeat.
- After about another 10 to 15 minutes, add half the lemon juice, cook off and then add the other half of the lemon juice.
- The chicken should be finished in about 50 minutes. Control the heat over this time to make sure that no liquid accumulates (If it does raise the heat).
- Keep chicken uncovered or it has a tendency to release all of its juices and become too dry.
- Top with chopped parsley and reserved lemon slices
- Tilt pan to gather juices and spoon over chicken when serving.
- Enjoy!!