Lemon Chicken with Avgolemono Sauce

This Friday I made dinner for my folks and grandparents. Growing up this was the night my mom traditionally served chicken, usually roasted but not necessarily. So I decided to do the same, however I wanted to add a little twist. Now, plain old roasted chicken, with salt, pepper and either garlic or garlic and lemon, is perfectly tasty, filling, and quite comforting. But if you're in the mood to add a little something extra, the dish I made is a spin on a traditional Greek chicken dish and is a nice way to add a twist without needing to go over the top. I've modified this a bit from the original, found in "How To Eat" by Nigella.

Lemon Roasted Chicken with Avoglemono Sauce:

• 6 Tbs olive oil (you may need slightly more)


• 1 large chicken cut into 8 or 10 portions, or two small chickens cut into 6 portions each.


• zest and juice of 1 large, or 2 small, lemons (wash well if they are waxed)


• 1 Tbs oregano


• 1 1/4 cup of dry white wine (you may need more of this as well)


• 3 eggs

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place chicken in large baking dish it should hold the chicken and fit over two burners on your stove top. If you do not have a baking dish that can also go on the stove or is too small, you can use a frying pan for this step instead on make in two batches: Place chicken in heated baking dish or frying pan on stove and pour on oil. turn chicken until golden. Once all pieces are done, place pieces in their dishes that are going into the oven. Add the lemon zest, oregano, wine, salt and pepper. Splash on a little bit of water, about 1 cup for all the chicken (divided between the two pans if you are using two). Whack it in the oven and cook for 30 - 40 minutes. If you have a meat thermometer, when the internal temp reaches between 170 - 180 it is finished. Remove chicken from dish and place on serving plate. Place plate in oven and turn off.

To make the sauce: Pour off all the chicken juice from dish into a separate container and measure off approx. 1 1/4 cup to use in the sauce and set aside.

Into a sauce pan, on very low heat, put the eggs and juice from the lemons and start whisking (by hand or electric whisk). Keep whisking until the mixture is frothy and then slowly add in the chicken juice while whisking. The sauce is ready when it reaches the consistency of thin custard (keep whisking over the heat if you want it thicker. Remove from heat and add salt and pepper to taste. Pour into a separate jug, bowl or, if you got it, gravy boat and serve with the chicken.

Notes: For the chicken: you can skip the frying bit and go straight to the oven, just make sure to cook it in the oil, lemon zest, salt, pepper and oregano first then add the wine and water once the outsides have started to golden. If you want and can find it, use rigani instead of oregano.

For the sauce: If you are nervous about curdling, have a large bowl filled with water and ice next to you in which you can plunge the pan to prevent overheating and splitting. If you do not want to make the sauce directly over the heat, you can make it in a bowl placed over a sauce pan filled with water brought to a gentle boil. Make sure the bowl does not touch the water while you whisk.

I also made a pretty kick-arse flourless chocolate cake for dessert, if anyone wants the recipe I'll post.