FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019 • COOK’S COUNTRY 5IN HOMEWOOD, ALABAMA,
if you say you’re going out for
“Greek-and-three,” folks will assume
you’re headed to Johnny’s Restaurant
(see “Greek Home Alabama”) for
lunch. There, on the menu behind the
counter, you’ll see Greek baked chicken,
a superfl avorful dish of tender and juicy
marinated and roasted chicken with
tons of herbs and lemon. It comes with
three sides, hence “Greek-and-three.”
Once I’d tried it for myself, I knew I
wanted to create my own version of this
simple yet complex-tasting dish.
Back in the test kitchen, the fi rst
order of business was determining
which herbs to use in the marinade.
After experimenting with fresh herbs,
dried herbs, and even dried herb blends
such as Italian seasoning and herbes de
Provence, I found the best balance with
fresh thyme, fresh rosemary, and dried
oregano, which packs a more pungent
punch than fresh. Rather than fi nely
mince the fresh herbs, I opted to simply
chop them; I found that with slightly
larger pieces, the bursts of fl avor were
more pronounced and exciting.
Usually, when adding lemon zest
to a recipe like this one, we suggest
using a rasp-style grater to grate the
zest, but I found that using a vegetable
peeler to remove six strips of peel from
a lemon and then coarsely chopping
the strips gave me pockets of assertive
lemon fl avor reminiscent of those I’d
found in the chicken at Johnny’s. It’s a
more rustic technique for a more rustic
profi le, and it works beautifully. Some
ground coriander and pepper (both red
and black) rounded things out. The
coriander, with its citrusy notes, helped
enhance the lemon and add some
complexity to the mix. Salt and olive
oil brought it all together.
I cut thin, ½-inch-deep slits in each
piece of chicken to maximize its expo-
sure to this marinade and then tossed
the chicken with the mixture, making
sure the marinade got into the slits,
before sticking it in the refrigerator.
Once it had marinated for a couple
of hours, the chicken was ready for
cooking. I nestled the pieces into an
ovensafe skillet, poured the excess
marinade over the top, and slid the pan
into the oven. I chose a 12-inch skillet
because I wanted to keep the chicken
pieces relatively tightly packed to
minimize evaporation of the marinade
and the fl avorful chicken juices; I was
counting on that liquid to transform
into a deeply fl avorful pan sauce.
But even after roasting the pieces at
a relatively high 425 degrees until they
were cooked through (about 35 min-
utes), I wasn’t happy with the browning
(or, rather, the lack thereof). I tried a
few tricks—changing the position of
the oven rack and tinkering with the
temperature and time—before decid-
ing to hit the chicken with heat from
the broiler for a couple of minutes at
the end of cooking to give it a lovely
brown color.
I served the pieces with the pan
sauce spooned over the top—a
supersimple yet superfl avorful
supper of Greek Chicken.GREEK CHICKEN
Serves 4
Use a vegetable peeler to remove six
strips of zest from the lemon. If you
have a rasp-style grater and prefer to
use it to zest the lemon, you will need
about 1 tablespoon of zest. Make sure
to use kosher salt here; we developed
this recipe using Diamond Crystal
Kosher Salt.1⁄4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh
rosemary
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
5 garlic cloves, chopped
6 (3-inch) strips lemon zest, chopped,
plus 1 tablespoon juice
1 tablespoon kosher salt
11⁄2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1⁄2 teaspoon red pepper fl akes
1⁄2 teaspoon pepper
3 pounds bone-in chicken pieces
(2 split breasts, 2 drumsticks,
2 thighs, and 2 wings, wingtips
discarded)- Combine oil, rosemary, thyme,
garlic, lemon zest, salt, oregano,
coriander, pepper fl akes, and pepper
in large bowl. Cut three ½-inch-deep
slits in skin side of each chicken breast,
two ½-inch-deep slits in skin side
of each thigh, and two ½-inch-deep
slits in each drumstick; leave wings
whole. Transfer chicken to bowl with
marinade and turn to thoroughly coat,
making sure marinade gets into slits.
Cover and refrigerate for at least
30 minutes or up to 2 hours. - Adjust oven rack 6 inches from
broiler element and heat oven to
425 degrees. Place chicken, skin side
up, in 12-inch ovensafe skillet. Using
rubber spatula, scrape any remaining
marinade from bowl over chicken.
Roast until breasts register 160 de-
grees and drumsticks/thighs register
175 degrees, 30 to 35 minutes. - Remove skillet from oven and
spoon pan juices over top of chicken
to wet skin. Heat broiler. Broil chick-
en until skin is lightly browned, about
3 minutes, rotating skillet as neces-
sary for even browning. Let chicken
rest in skillet for 10 minutes. Transfer
chicken to shallow platter. Stir lemon
juice into pan juices, then spoon over
chicken. Serve.
You’re going to want some crusty bread to sop up the savory, herby pan sauce.Greek
Baked
Chicken
This Alabama favorite
features old-world
fl avors in a wholly
American way.
by Bryan Roof
Herbs and Slashing
In addition to lemon zest, we fl avor this
dish with a mix of herbs to create an
incredibly aromatic Greek-inspired fl avor
profi le. We use two fragrant fresh
herbs—rosemary and thyme—plus
potent dried oregano and ground
coriander. To make sure those
fl avors fi nd their way
into the chicken,
we slash the raw
pieces (above)
before combining
them with the marinade.