Lemon Broccoli Chicken
And where to find a July 4th Grilling Round-Up of Recipes
It’s time to grill some food and eat outside in the heat amongst the mosquitos.
It’s the season to frighten the daylights out of our pets with exploding fire.
It’s Fourth of July, which means meat, sides, dranks, and fireworks. I can help with three out of the four.
Here’s a picture of meat to whet your whistle before I move on to the main event…
LEMON BROCCOLI CHICKEN
This recipe appeared first in Eat Happy. But it never gets any love because I didn’t know how to photograph it when I first invented the recipe.
I’ve noticed that a lot of recipes won’t get made unless they have photographs. This is no one’s fault, we are just visually inspired creatures, and I get it.
And unfortunately, my books would be cost prohibitive and weigh too much if every recipe got its own photo (sadly).
I’ve since improved my food photography skills, and now I have a photo. In fact, I’m working my way through a lot of my old recipes and finally getting good pics of them.
So it’s time to reprint this recipe WITH a photo (with permission from me the book author to me the Substack author).
When you are not busy entertaining people all weekend for the holiday, you will need to make an easy dinner for the fam. Or for yourself.
And this recipe for Lemon Broccoli Chicken is perfect. One pan, all the flavors.
It can easily be made dairy free too, just omit the parmesan, use olive oil for the butter, and full fat coconut cream for the heavy cream. Season with extra salt if you need it at the end.
Here we go…and as always, a downloadable, printable PDF of Lemon Broccoli Chicken is right here for you.
LEMON BROCCOLI CHICKEN
(Serves 3-4)
INGREDIENTS
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 12-ounce bag of broccoli florets, cut into smaller pieces (or use one head of broccoli)
1 1/4 cups chicken broth (best to use homemade)
3-4 chicken breasts, trimmed of fat
Salt and pepper for seasoning
1/4 cup coconut flour
1 tablespoon butter
1 shallot, finely chopped, 1/2 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (check the label for no sugar added)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan
INSTRUCTIONS:
Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large oven-safe skillet until very hot (but not smoking). Add broccoli and cook until you start to get sear marks, turning after 1 minute. Add 1/4 cup of the chicken broth, cover pan, and cook until broccoli starts to get tender and bright green, about 5 minutes. Place broccoli in a bowl and clean out the skillet.
Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Place coconut flour in a shallow bowl, lightly flour the chicken breasts. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in your skillet until hot, but not smoking. Cook chicken until browned on each side, about 3–4 minutes per side. Move chicken aside to a plate.
Reduce skillet heat to medium, add in butter and shallots, cooking 30 seconds, but don’t let the butter burn. Add in remaining chicken broth, the heavy cream, and Worcestershire sauce. Bring to a boil while scraping up any chicken bits. Return the chicken to the skillet, coating the pieces in the sauce. Let simmer on medium heat for an additional 10 minutes, flipping halfway through.
Turn your broiler onto high. Remove chicken from skillet, cut into smaller pieces. Season your sauce with salt and pepper, continue to cook your sauce until it is reduced and thickened, about 7–8 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat, whisk in half of the parmesan and the lemon juice. Season again, if necessary, with salt and pepper. Return the chicken and broccoli pieces to the pan and mix into sauce. Sprinkle remaining parmesan on top. Broil for 5–7 minutes until parmesan is golden. Serve immediately.