Roasted Lemon Chicken over Baguette, Onion, and Leeks
This recipe is comfort food and beyond. Similar to turkey and stuffing, but better- just because I don’t love turkey. The beauty of this dish is that the chicken is roasted over sliced baguette and caramelized onion and leeks, so the chicken juices drip on top and create the most amazingly flavorful baguette slices. This recipe is heavily inspired by a Zingerman’s recipe that I can’t find an official link to. I’ve switched out ingredients over the years and changed the steps a little bit.
Notes
If you do not want to use wine, you can leave it out
For extra crispy chicken skin, butterfly the chicken the day before and heavily salt and leave uncovered on a rack in the refrigerator. This will dry out the skin to make it extra crispy and delicious.
You can adjust or omit the crushed red pepper flakes
Show your appreciation with a tip!
Help keep this website AD-Free and Paywall-Free with a donation of your choosing. TOTALLY OPTIONAL!
Roasted Lemon Chicken over Baguette, Onion, and Leeks
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 chicken 4-5 lbs, cleaned and butterflied
- 2 large onions, sliced thinly
- 3 large leeks, sliced thinly and cleaned
- 3 large garlic cloves, minced
- 2 teaspoons thyme
- 2 teaspoons oregano
- 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes (adjust based on your preference)
- 1 cup white wine
- 1 baguette, sliced
- 1 lemon, juiced and zested
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C).
- In a 12" cast iron skillet, heat 1/4 cup of olive oil over medium heat.
- Add the sliced onions and leeks to the skillet. Sauté them for about 25 minutes or until they start to caramelize, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.
- Pour in the white wine and cook until it has evaporated, stirring occasionally.
- Add minced garlic, thyme, oregano, red pepper flakes, lemon zest, salt, and pepper to the skillet. Continue to cook the mixture until it becomes caramelized and fragrant.
- Turn off the heat and remove the onion and leek mixture from the skillet. Set it aside for later use.
- Lightly oil the cast iron skillet, then arrange slices of the baguette to cover the bottom of the skillet.
- Spread the caramelized onion and leek mixture evenly over the bread slices.
- Rub both sides of the butterflied chicken with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, then season generously with salt and pepper. Place the seasoned chicken on top of the onion mixture in the skillet.
- Drizzle lemon juice over the chicken.
- Transfer the skillet to the preheated oven and roast for 1 to 1-1/2 hours, or until the internal temperature of the chicken thigh reaches 160-165°F (71-74°C).
- Once the chicken is cooked through, remove the skillet from the oven and let it stand for 10 minutes before serving.
- Serve the chicken and caramelized onion mixture with the bread slices. Adjust salt to taste if necessary.
