Tuesday 16 September 2014

Lemon Chicken

Having a lemon tree has been a real blessing to my family.  We make good use of the free lemons by making lots of yummy treats.  Lemon Chicken is a favourite dish in my family.  I didn't have a recipe for this dish.  I haven't even looked it up on the internet or my recipe books.  I just made it up the way I thought it should be.  I use drumsticks as they are budget friendly.  Darren bought ten kilos of drumsticks at $1.99 a kilo at a butchers a couple of months ago.  He portioned them out into meal sizes for the freezer. He was able to get fourteen meals from the ten kilos.  We allowed one drumstick for us girls and two for Darren

The chicken for this dish costs us $1.42.  The lemons are free and the seasonings and vegetables cost next to nothing.  Total cost for the meal would be under $2.00 for four people.

1 - 2 drumsticks per person
Plain flour to coat the drumsticks
2 lemons
Salt
Pepper
Garlic - powdet, granules or fresh
Onion - dried flakes or fresh
Mixed herbs
Olive oil

Heat the oven to 190 degrees celcius.

Coat the drumsticks in plain flour.   In a medium / large fry pan add the oil and cook the drumsticks until they are brown.

Transfer the drumsticks to an oven proof dish.

Cut one lemon and squeeze the juice over the drumsticks.

Season the drumsticks with all the seasonings.

Cut up the other lemon into thin slices and quarter each slice.  Scatter over the drumsticks.

Cook in the oven uncovered for 40 minutes until cooked through.

Once you have served the drumsticks,  add a little boiled water to the casserole dish and scrape up all the brown bits.  This makes a lovely gravy / sauce to spoon over the chicken.

The finished product. 
Lemons, silverbeet and broccoli are from our garden.

The chicken was browned in a fry pan.
Now to add the lemons and seasonings.

The dish is ready to be finished off in the oven.

 

19 comments:

  1. Thanks Wendy. Will try this recipe as well. Looks good and I think my family might enjoy it. Blessings. Liz.

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  2. Thanks Wendy will try this as soon as I can buy drumsticks on the cheap. By the way, do you use a compost bin/heap? And do you use an extra freezer and is this much more money to run? I have been trying to find the Molasses for the brown sugar and it has been hard to find. The only one I came across was in a smallish bottle (similar to that of an upside down honey bottle) $3.80 woolies and is like runny honey. Is this the right one as I have never purchased Molasses before? Thanks, sorry for all the questions, Maureen

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    1. Yes we do use a compost bin. Darren emptied some of it onto our garden yesterday for the first time.

      We have an upright fridge / freezer combo ( two full length doors ) It's a 660 litre one. We also have a 120 litre upright freezer ( very small ) and were given a 180 litre upright freezer from some friends. When we were given this one we didn't notice a difference in our power bills.

      The molasses is found in the health food section of the supermarket. I had to ask the first time I went to buy it. I searched al over the supermarket thinking it would be next to the honey. Even the staff had to search. Molasses is about as thick as honey but much darker ( alnost black ). it's strong in flavour when you dip your finger in to taste it. If you are not sure can you take it back and look in the health section ?

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  3. Thanks Wendy, I havent as yet purchased it but I will now on my shopping day. I didnt think to look in the health food section. Do you cost your meals for dinner, like the Lemon Chicken? Thanks again, Maureen

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    1. I have a pretty good idea of what most of my meals cost. When I post a recipe here I'll be putting the cost on to help others.

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  4. This looks very good & economical. I often buy drumsticks from a wholesale butcher in Wodonga & usually make BBQ drumsticks with BBQ sauce as disabled dh likes that way, but I think it is time for a change!!

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  5. Hi Wendy, I have been reading your blog for a few weeks now and are really enjoying it :) I'm a SAHM to 2 little girls (almost 6 and 2 years old) and we try and live a nice frugal lifestyle. We are just in Pakenham :) It's blogs like yours that keep me motivated, and I love the recipe ideas and seeing how others do their day to day chores. I have the ingredients to try your laundry powder, I have made a liquid version before but not for a while (I've been lazy over winter!) as the Aldi cheapest one is just so easy!! Anyway, I just wanted to say hello and I can't wait to read more. Do you have a facebook page for sharing your blog and ideas? Larissa :)

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    1. Larissa, we are almost neighbours. I live in Narre Warren.

      Yes I have two facebook pages. One called Wendy Gower and one called My Abundant Life. When I post things here they automatically appear on the facebook pages.

      Welcome to my blog. It's great to hear from you and I hope you can comment often. I love to hear how others save money too. We can all learn from each other.

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  6. Sounds yum to me! Thank you for sharing this recipe Wendy :)

    x

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    1. Thanks Tania. Did you notice I've got your blog on my page ?

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  7. Hi Wendy, that looks absolutely delicious. Tonight we had left over butter chicken and rice for one of my girls; my eldest was at a friends house so my husband and I had cabbage, lettuce, tomato salad with corn fritters, this means the schnitzels we were going to have tonight we can have tomorrow night, no waste and I made up the salad and corn fritters on the spot just by looking in my pantry! All trips from you Wendy. I noticed a meal you are having tonight wendy I haven't heard of it before is it hard to make? Simone

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    1. Are you referring to the roast beef in the slow cooker ? If so, it's very easy. Brown the beef in a fry pan. Add to slow cooker and add about 400 mls of liquid beef stock and two heaped tablespons of french onion soup mix. Cook for 8 - 10 hours turning once.

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    2. Hi Wendy, no actually it is the meal that is Nasi Goreng I've not heard of this before and I was just wondering what it was? Warm thank you Simone

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    3. Simone, it's a rice dish that Megan makes (like fried rice ) She learnt it at school. Next time she makes it I'll get her to write the recipe down. She's just like me, doesn't work to a recipe as such and when she does she changes it around to suit our budget.

      I'll do a post on it soon.

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  8. Hi Wendy, will you be posting your menu plan for the next month soon on this site? I love to see what you are making and adapt my menu plan accordingly. Thanks Maureen

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    1. I can do that. I wasn't sure if anyone would be interested. As soon as I write it I'll post it. Thanks for asking.

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  9. Thank you so much Wendy. I now stand in the supermarket and think "what would Wendy do" LOL :) because I'm really over wasting money. I snagged 2x 2 kilo bags of chicken pieces the other day for $3.50 each so I will use this recipe. Much appreciated.

    Deb

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    1. That's so funny Deb

      Good buy on the chicken pieces. Make sure you bag and freeze them into meal sizes.

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  10. Made the lemon chicken last night, was a success. Thankyou.Suz

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