Crunchy Lemon Chicken

I heard about a recipe contest where you had to make a recipe using lemons and I wanted to try combining lemon with chicken, so this is the recipe I came up with.

Crunchy Lemon Chicken

Ingredients:

2 lemons

¼ cup olive oil

1 tsp fresh ginger, grated

½ tsp salt

4 chicken breasts

1½ cups Panko breadcrumbs

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp dried thyme

½ cup flour

2 egg whites

1 tbsp water

Directions:

Combine zest of 1 lemon with the juice of both. Add olive oil, ginger, and salt. Place in plastic bag and add chicken breasts. Marinate chicken in lemon marinade for about 4 hours.

Preheat oven to 400°. Combine bread crumbs and oil in a skillet and toast over medium heat, stirring often, until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Spread the bread crumbs in a shallow dish and cool slightly; when cool, stir in the thyme.

Place flour in a shallow dish. Beat egg whites and water together in another shallow dish.

Remove chicken from marinade, draining well. Coat each breast in flour, dip in egg white, and coat with the panko. Spray a baking rack with cooking spray and place on a baking sheet. Place chicken breasts on rack.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Makes 4 servings.

This is yummy! I marinated the chicken a bit too long (8 hours), and the lemon juice actually "cooked" the chicken a little bit. It was totally white when I got it out of the marinade, instead of pink. So I think it should only marinate for 4 hours. But it still tasted just fine the way it was. The thyme is a nice addition; you could use fresh if you have that on hand.

Toasting the panko before breading the chicken ensures a wonderfully crispy and golden brown coating. And using only the egg white instead of the whole egg cuts down on fat and cholesterol.

If you would like to vote for this recipe in the contest I entered it in, you can do so here:

MixingBowl.com Contest Page

I served this with some potatoes and green beans.

Lisa at Parsley, Sage, Desserts, and Line Drives chose to make this recipe when she was assigned my blog for the Secret Recipe Club in April 2012.  She switched it up by using lime and coconut.  Click on the button below to check out her post!