Greek Chicken

I got the idea for this one from a dish served by our university cafeteria, of all places. I highly recommend it in conjunction with the new potatoes, or some green beans. Since it involves meat, remember that some advance planning will need to be done to prepare the chicken! This recipe doesn't have set measurements for any of the ingredients, so if you're a cook that doesn't yet feel comfortable doing things "to taste," I'd start out elsewhere and come back here when you've developed some confidence.

You will need:
Oven
one chicken breast per person (or two, if you're hungry/like leftovers)
fresh lemon
lemon juice
olive oil
feta cheese crumbles
dried basil
foil

Greek Chicken:
Prep work: Wash and trim the fat off thawed or fresh chicken breasts. Place in a shallow dish and stab with a fork until the novelty wears off-- this is called tenderizing and will allow the chicken to take up more flavor while soaking. Pour enough olive oil in to coat the breasts, but not leave them floundering in a pool of oil. Let sit for at least two hours so the chicken has ample time to absorb the flavor.

Preheat the oven to 400.

Switch the chicken breasts to a baking dish large enough to hold them side-by-side with no overlap. make sure some olive oil comes with. Squeeze lemon juice liberally over the chicken. If you desperately want a measurement for that, I'd say at least 2TBSP lemon juice per chicken breast, but I really think you can eyeball this one. Lightly cover each breast with the dried basil by shaking it out of the spice jar. Turn the chicken over and coat the other side with basil, too.

Slice the fresh lemon in half through the middle (widthwise, not lengthwise). From the center cut, slice off two thin circles for each chicken breast. (When I was teaching this recipe to one of my guy friends, we came across some problems in the lemon slicing area. I'm going to warn you right now-- if you have cheap knives, this might be a bit of a pain. Because of this, don't bother getting them microthin.) Place two lemon slices on top of each slice of chicken, over the basil.

Finally, top the whole thing with feta cheese crumbles, cover the dish with foil, and place in the oven. Check after thirty minutes, but they probably won't be done for at least 40. To test for doneness, stab the middle of each chicken breast. If the fork goes through easily, the meat is cooked. For the exceptionally picky, just cut and peek (that's actually what I do to this day. Food poisoning makes for careful chefs).

To serve, remove the lemon slices, add a little more feta cheese, and devour. Be prepared for a very citrus-y, extra tender meat.