Cindy's Lemon Chicken

You would never guess that my mother Cindy is allergic to lemon by this fabulous dish she makes. Her Lemon Chicken is super easy and YES I did get permission to post the recipe for you all.

To make this simple dinner even easier, here are my tips on using few tools and dishes in the kitchen. I made two pans of this recipe and used eight chicken breasts (boneless, skinless) which I placed in the baking dish, drizzled with olive oil and then dusted with salt and pepper on the top side.

SPOG is what my mother refers to when she uses "Salt, Pepper, Onion (powder) and Garlic (powder)."

In a shallow dish, add a cup or two of flour for dredging (whole wheat would be great). One at a time, pick up the chicken and plop it seasoned side down with your left hand. (This is my technique by the way - one dirty hand, one clean hand)

With your clean right hand grab the SPOG and season the top.

With your dirty left hand, flip the chicken so the newly seasoned side can get coated with the flour.

One more time in slow motion for you gals who told me this weekend that I don't "splain" myself. You've seasoned one side already, put the chicken breast seasoned side down in the flour, then season the side that is facing up.

Then flip to coat the newly seasoned side with flour.

Lay these little chix back in the baking dishes and add a pat of butter to each breasts. Want to save calories? Leave off the butter and squirt with the butter spray or drizzle lightly with olive oil.

Pop this in the oven for 30 minutes at 400 degrees. This is what my mother at this stage in the recipe would call her Simple Baked Chicken. This right here is fantastic served over rice or steamed veggies. If you can do this much, congrats because this is a great start and you can take this recipe in many different directions from here.

Watch what I'm going to do with it now. Lemon Chicken!

Start with 16 ounces of sour cream and add to a saucepan over medium low heat.

Now add two cans of cream of chicken soup to the saucepan.

Stir to combine.

Yes, real lemon would be great here - but I used the real lemons I had to make Lemon Basil Mint Sorbet. Oh my, wait until you see that dessert!

So for this recipe I added 1/3 cup of the bottled lemon juice to the saucepan. My mother also uses sliced mushrooms in her sauce, but we aren't big fans so I left them out. Heat until very warm.

30 minutes has gone by, so I flip the chicken breasts.

Now pour the sauce over the chicken.

Sprinkle with sliced almonds (I took this picture before I "sprinkled.") But I do feel strongly about adding the sliced almonds to this dish. Now put these back in the oven for 30 more minutes at 400 degrees. Make the rice, cook the veggies, slice the bread - get everything else ready to go in these last 30 minutes.

I served the lemon chicken with rice, steamed broccoli and a salad of artichoke hearts and vinaigrette dressing.

I marinated the artichoke hearts in some olive oil and red pepper flakes. It is more economical to buy artichokes plain in a can of water rather than in a fancy jar already marinating. The simple vinaigrette was made with olive oil, salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar. The chicken heats up well as left overs, so go ahead and make extra!