Lemon Dill Roasted Chicken Inspired by Fresh & Co.

Hazel Sy from Tasty Pursuits is back with part 2 of our food miniseries! This post, its Lemon Dill Roasted Chicken inspired by our Lemon Grilled Chicken Sandwich. Enjoy!

Food is art. Plating a dish is an exercise in graphic design as you arrange shapes and colors on a white canvas. Food styling for photographs blends architecture and sculpture. Photography is, well, photography…encouraging you to explore angles and perspectives so that even everyday macaroni and cheese evokes emotion and a good amount of stomach grumbling. (A quick tip for the next time you snap a shot of your dinner: sit in front of the dish as if you are going to eat it, then take a photo from every angle BUT that one.) Best of all, you have the vast palette of flavors and ingredients to play with. And just as a painter can create multiple masterpieces using the same set of colors, a cook can create an array of dishes using the same set of ingredients.

But you don’t need a muse to make dinner. Inspiration is as close as the Fresh & Co. sandwich that you had for lunch…that’s what I did. In fact, I created a full meal with each dish inspired from a Fresh & Co. sandwich (you may even see a Fresh & Co. inspired dessert in a future post!):

Appetizer: Steak Crisps with Caper Aioli inspired by the Grilled Steak and Fontina Crisp Panini Melt

Entrée: Lemon Dill Roasted Chicken inspired by the Lemon Grilled Chicken Sandwich

Side: Greek Feta Couscous inspired by the Greek Feta & Tomato Baguette Sandwich

So how does inspiration work? In some cases I taste something and just know what I would like to create. Who knows, maybe an artist’s muse had extra time on her hands and felt generous that day. However, most of the time I mentally disassemble the dish and think about each component’s flavor and texture. Can I tweak an ingredient’s texture before adding it back to the dish? Could I swap a sour ingredient with something else that is tangy? What if I put them back together in a different order? The process is similar to pulling apart a shiny new Lego fire truck, and using the pieces to create something from your imagination. (When I was seven, I used to take the legs from the Lego people and slap on clear two-holed Lego bricks to create an army of robots in outer space. My imagination and Lego building skills have since improved.)

Once I had a rough plan for the dish, I was excited to hop into the kitchen and get started. Lemon Dill Roasted Chicken was an opportunity to figure out how to keep roasted chicken breast moist (as it turns out, ribs have the right idea with low and slow). It was also a new combination for me: dill and chicken. Delicate dill is often found on seafood, and chicken is usually spruced up with rosemary or tarragon. Thank you Fresh & Co. for this inspiration!

How about your culinary masterpieces? What would you create based on a Fresh & Co. sandwich? Leave a comment and let me know. Then stay tuned for the Greek Feta Couscous recipe, which will be featured next Tuesday on TastyPursuits.com!


Click read more to get this yummy recipe!

Photo courtesy of Fresh & Co.

Lemon Dill Roasted Chicken

2 split chicken breasts, bone-in, with skin

2 1/2 tablespoons butter, softened

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon dill, chopped

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Preheat the oven to 300F.

In a small bowl, mix together all ingredients except the chicken. Set aside.

Rinse the chicken and pat dry with paper towels.

Spread the butter mixture on the chicken and in between the skin and the meat.

Roast the chicken in the oven for 25 - 30 minutes, until the internal temperature of the thickest part is 160F.

Remove the chicken from the oven and turn on the broiler.

Broil the chicken for 1 - 2 minutes until the skin is lightly browned.

Transfer the chicken to a plate and cover loosely with foil. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.