mertzie's baked chicken w/ basted veggies

(1 rating)
Recipe by
Michelle Koletar/Mertz
Harrisburg, PA

The pic at the bottom of the recipe is of my husky as I was serving this dish up -- lets you know how good it smelled. :) I love Sunday dinner and sometimes simple bone-in chicken breasts are my favorite to bake. Today I decided to try baking them a bit different, with vegetables underneath to soak up all the drippings. The chicken skin was nice and brown, but the meat was so juicy. The veggies came out just as I was hoping. My son loved it, so I wrote down what I did and am sharing for when I make again. You obviously could use any kind of veg or herb you want with this.

(1 rating)
yield 2 -6
prep time 10 Min
cook time 1 Hr 5 Min
method Bake

Ingredients For mertzie's baked chicken w/ basted veggies

  • large chicken breasts (one per person)
  • brine in kosher salt and water overnight
  • 1
    large stalk celery, cut in small chunks
  • 1
    lemon, cut in half
  • FOR CHICKEN BASTING:
  • 1/2
    stick butter
  • 1/4-1/2
    cup wine
  • 1
    container, knorr's chicken stock (condensed kind)
  • juice from 1/2 lemon
  • spices to your preference -- i used a mix of hungarian paprika, turmeric, thyme, marjoram, dill weed, salt, black pepper
  • FOR VEGETABLES:
  • lemon chunks
  • 4-5
    carrots cut in chunks, or about 20 baby carrots
  • 4-5
    yukon gold potatoes, cut in chunks
  • 1
    large onion, cut in chunks
  • fresh parsley, dried rosemary
  • garlic cloves (depending on your taste)
  • 1
    zucchini (or your choice of veg), cut in chunks

How To Make mertzie's baked chicken w/ basted veggies

  • 1
    Heat oven to 350. Pat the brined chicken dry. Slip 2-3 thin lemon slices and celery pieces under the skin. Put skin flap back over as much of the breast meat as you can. Don't worry if some of the meat is peeking out.
  • 2
    Melt the butter and then whisk in the wine and chicken stock and spices. (I used Penzey's Old World spice blend, but you can make your own to your taste). After the stock is combined and melted in, add the juice of half of 1 lemon. Keep this on very low heat now.
  • 3
    Spray a large (deep sized) baking dish with cooking spray. Place the vegetables, parsley, rosemary, and garlic on top in this pan. Chop up the lemon that you used for the sauce (and any other leftover) and add in the pan, too. Sprinkle w/ salt and ground black pepper. Take a spoonful of the heated chicken basting liquid and drizzle over top of the veggies.
  • 4
    Place your chicken breasts on a baking rack and sit over top of the veggies. Using a brush, baste each chicken breast generously with the basting sauce. (You will have a considerable amount of basting sauce left, and that is good). Sprinkle with more black pepper, if you like, and I added sprinkled with more Hungarian paprika on top for color. Put all in the oven (keeping the chicken baking sheet on top of the veggie pan) and bake for about 20 mins. Brush the chicken again w/ basting sauce and then do that another one or two times as it bakes. Total baking time about one hour & 10 mins, depending on chicken size and your own oven.
  • 5
    I stirred the vegetables and added a bit more of the basting sauce one time to them, but I didn't have any problem with them sticking or browning too much.
  • 6
    When chicken is done, remove and tent w/ foil. I sprinkled w/ fresh parsley pieces. Put veggies to top layer of oven if they need to brown a bit more.
  • 7
    Serve and pour juices over top. Enjoy!

Categories & Tags for Mertzie's Baked Chicken w/ Basted Veggies:

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