Lemon-Marinated Chicken, or What To Make For a Crowd Without Giving Yourself a Panic Attack

March was a rough month around here.  The four of us passed around the same horrible virus again and again, and we were all at various stages of sick for the entire month. We missed our annual spring celebration. We missed making corned beef for St. Patrick’s Day. And we sure didn’t make any great dinners (well, OK – one great dinner. But it was for other people and they paid to be here and we planned it back in November), so we’ve mostly been having the same 4 things over and over again. Nobody could taste anything so cooking felt pretty pointless.

I emerged from the fog of the Nyquil fumes and realized that the lunch I volunteered to cater for the volunteers at a church fundraiser was just around the corner. I like cooking for an appreciative audience and the request was made before I got sick, but naturally I didn’t plan the menu in advance. Given all the constraints – time, money, and what was humanly possible given all the other things I was catching up on that weekend – this recipe seemed to fit the bill. It’s from my Banrnes-and-Noble-bargain-rack-surprise-favorite, The Food and Cooking of the Middle East, which I’m so glad I bought and which has never disappointed me.

The only hard part about this recipe is remembering to marinate the chicken in advance. I don't think I'd marinate it overnight for dinner the next day – I don't want the chicken to get mushy – but marinating the night before for lunch seemed just right; if I made this for dinner I’d throw it together in the morning (yes, it's that easy) before I left for work.

I served it with mjadara, fattoush, and David’s excellent hummous, which made the omnivores AND the vegans happy.  It scales up very, very easily – it was no more work to make this for 40 people than it was to make it for 4, really. 

Lemon-Marinated Chicken 

2 whole  boneless skinless chicken breasts, trimmed

3 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp cider vinegar

2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 cinnamon stick, broken in half

Grated rind of ½ orange

6 cardamom pods, crushed

Mix together the ingredients for the marinade. Pour over the chicken and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350. Put the chicken in a baking dish (if you’re scaling this up, make sure your pan is big enough to hold the chicken in a single layer) and bake for 20 minutes, basting occasionally with the marinade if you’re so inclined (I was not).

Take the chicken out of the pan and shred or chop coarsely. Return it to the baking pan, stirring in any marinade remaining at the bottom of the pan, and return to the oven for 10 minutes. (If you happen to be in a commercial kitchen with a warming oven available, put it in there to hold instead).

This is delicious as-is. The original recipe has it served in pita, with a tahini dressing drizzled over the top and pickled vegetables on the side. You could serve it on fattoush for a healthy-ish main dish salad, or dip the pieces in hummous when you're too lazy to chop more carrots or bother with a fork.