Lemon Herb Chicken from @EdithMaxwell #giveaway

MADDIE here, writing as my alter-ego Edith Maxwell.

A Changing Light, my seventh Quaker Midwife Mystery, releases next week, and I am delighted! Set in 1890, the world around midwife Rose Carroll Dodge is changing, and so is her personal life. 

One evening she and David, her husband of sixth months, decide to dine out at the Grand Hotel atop Whittier Hill. Rose wears her new dress and enjoys a meal of lemon-herb chicken cutlets, asparagus, and mashed potatoes.

In honor of that scene, I bring you the same menu! You'll have to figure out how to steam asparagus and make mashed potatoes using the recipe of your choice.

Lemon Herb Chicken Cutlets

Note - salt, pepper, and rosemary not shown

Ingredients

1 pound chicken tenders

1 tablespoon flour

1/4 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

Salt and pepper

1 Tablespoon olive oil

2 Tablespoons butter divided

1 1/2 Tablespoons lemon juice about ½ a lemon

1/2 cup chicken broth

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, minced

Directions

Arrange chicken cutlets in a single layer on a plate. Combine flour, basil and thyme in a small bowl.

Sprinkle half of the flour mixture over the chicken, pressing the flour into the chicken. Turn over and sprinkle the rest over the other sides, pressing and turning until all the chicken is covered.

Swirl olive oil in a large skillet (I used cast iron) over medium-high heat.

Add 1 tablespoon butter to the pan and melt.

Add chicken to pan and cook about 5-6 minutes on each side or until the outside is browned and the inside is no longer pink.

Remove chicken to a serving platter and keep warm.

Reduce heat and melt remaining butter in the pan.

Add chicken broth, lemon juice and garlic to the pan and stir to combine, scraping up brown bits.

Bring mixture to a boil and continue to boil until sauce has thickened slightly or about 3-4 minutes.

Spoon lemon garlic mixture over chicken and serve hot.

Readers: I'll send one of you an ebook of any of the first six Quaker Midwife Mysteries - your choice! What was the best hotel meal you ever ate?

My most recent book is the wide release of Murder at the Taffy Shop, the second Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery, now out in ebook and audio and available in paperback wherever books are sold!

After that, my alter-ego has A Changing Light, our seventh Quaker Midwife Mystery releasing on April 13! It's up for pre-order, and if you want a signed copy endorsed to you, please order from my local indy bookstore, Jabberwocky Books.

We hope you'll visit Edith and Maddie on our web site, sign up for our monthly newsletter, visit us on social media, and check our all our books and short stories.

Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) is a talented amateur chef and holds a PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha Award-winning and bestselling author, she is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction. She lives with her beau north of Boston, where she’s currently working on her next mystery when she isn’t cooking up something delectable in the kitchen.

The 1,200 Calorie Nightmare & the 131 Calorie Solution

Last week, I had house guests coming for the weekend. I asked one of them if she wanted anything special to eat. She replied that she was on a 1,200 calorie a day diet.

Ack! That threw my cooking plans out the window. After some thought, it seemed that concentrating on fruits and vegetables would be the thing to do.


But there was a catch. She doesn't like most fruits and vegetables. On top of that, one of my other guests doesn't like some of the few fruits and vegetables that the first guest will eat.

No onions, peppers, tomatoes, asparagus, pineapple, broccoli, cabbage, cucumbers, beans, black-eyed peas, lima beans, squash, eggplant -- are you getting the picture?

I had planned to make MJ's Dinner Party Chicken but I suspected that ricotta cheese and breadcrumbs would ruin the calorie count. So I borrowed MJ's idea and hoped for the best.


I went straight to lemon to infuse my chicken breasts with flavor. After all, they couldn't have many calories! In addition I made liberal use of rosemary for more flavor without fat or calories. A plain 4 ounce chicken breast (yes, I weighed them) is 120 calories. There are a mere 61 calories in one cup of lemon juice, so the entire calorie count of lemon juice for the dish wouldn't have been more than 15 calories or so.


Like MJ, I made a slit in each chicken breast. I sprinkled each one with a different blend of spices (Penzey's Northwoods, Turkish, and Lamb seasonings) and added rosemary. Then I slid half a slice of lemon inside each chicken breast. Rosemary comes in at a whopping 2 calories per tablespoon, making it every dieter's best buddy for flavor.

I skipped browning of chicken to avoid the additional calories of oil. Instead, I squeezed more lemon on top of the chicken breasts and sprinkled them generously with rosemary. But I did add one teensy sliver (about 1/16th of a tablespoon = 6 calories) of butter to the inside of each breast as well. I'm including the picture to prove that I used very little butter -- just a whisper, really.

It turned out surprisingly well in spite of the lack of oil and other fats. The butter melted with the chicken juices, making a very tiny bit of sauce in the bottom of the pan. To be honest, the spices were almost lost since the lemon and rosemary were so dominant and delicious.

Diet Chicken Breast

3 chicken breasts
1 lemon
rosemary
spices
tiny bit of butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking pan with aluminum foil.

Cut a pocket into the side of each chicken breast. Sprinkle with your favorite spices and rosemary. Insert 1/2 a slice of lemon.

Squeeze half a lemon over top of the chicken breasts and sprinkle liberally with rosemary.

Bake 40 - 45 minutes. Pour juices in bottom of pan over chicken breasts to serve.

Enjoy!