How To Make Chicken With Lemon Sauce
For a Simple Dinner and Great Lunch
By Shelia Norling

I learned to prepare this simple chicken dinner from my Swedish mother-in-law. She says it’s a very common meal in Sweden. I like it because my whole family loves it and it’s easy to make.

In this recipe, you boil a whole chicken and use some of the chicken broth to make a lemon sauce. We usually enjoy it with basmati rice and steamed broccoli. It also freezes and reheats well and makes great school lunches.

For 4 to 6 servings you will need: One whole chicken (fresh or thawed, but not frozen), 2 to 3 bay leaves, 9 to 12 whole black pepper corns, 1 teaspoon salt, one large white onion, 3 tablespoons butter, 1/3 cup all purpose flour, 2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice, lemon pepper, and one egg yolk.

To set up: Fill a large pot (big enough to cover a whole chicken with water) 2/3 full of water. Add to the water: bay leaves, pepper corns, salt, and the onion cut into quarters with the ends and skin removed.

Bring water to a boil first and then add the chicken. Bringing the water to a boil with the chicken in it causes a brown frothy substance to appear that will then need to be removed.

The chicken takes one hour and ten minutes to cook. If you’re preparing rice or other accompanying side dishes, plan them to be ready one hour and ten minutes from when you put the chicken in the pot. Also, you can start making the lemon sauce about 10 minutes before the chicken is done.

Lemon Sauce: To prepare the lemon sauce, melt the butter in a medium pan over medium-high heat. Whisk in the flour until well blended with the butter. Reduce heat to medium. Take some of the broth from the chicken pot and add it to the butter-flour mixture, stirring to blend well. Continue adding more chicken broth and stirring it into the lemon sauce - about 3 cups or so depending on the thickness you prefer. Stir in the lemon juice and lemon pepper. With whisk in one hand and egg yolk in other, whisk the sauce while adding the egg yolk and blending well. Remove from heat and cover.

To serve: Lift the chicken from the pot into a more shallow serving dish. Cut the chicken from the bones and serve with rice and broccoli. We like the lemon sauce poured over all of it. Sprinkle with lemon pepper as desired. Experiment and see how you like to enjoy this yummy dinner.

To save: If there are any leftovers, I mix the chicken, rice, broccoli, and lemon sauce all together and freeze it in a lunch size container. My kids love it for lunch. If you use chicken broth in your cooking, strain the broth from the large pot and freeze it. I pour it into ice cube trays to make convenient cubes of chicken broth.

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Shelia Norling combines her background in systems design, self-development, and nutrition with her love for cooking and her zest for life to deliver practical, no nonsense information for how to tweak your diet for greater health and vitality and how to tweak your life for greater enjoyment. Claim your free copy of Shelia’s extensive Alkalizing Food List and more at www.Tweakability.com.

© Copyright 2008 Shelia Norling - This article may be reprinted without permission as long as the content and author bio remains unchanged.

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