I was a bit distressed that the chicken breasts weren't fully defrosted, even after 24 hours in the fridge. But I think it worked out for the best! I loaded up the pan with the same old stuff - lemon, carrot, onion, celery, and this time added a few garlic cloves and whole sprigs of rosemary and thyme. But to help the flavors get in there and to help with the slightly longer cooking time I anticipated, I added just a little bit of olive oil and covered the whole thing with foil for the first 20 minutes.
I took the foil off and it smelled AMAZING. Can I bottle that scent? Eau de Poulet sounds pretty good to me! I reluctantly left the foil off, added a bit more olive oil to the skin, and stuck it back in. I checked it after another 45 minutes to add just a bit more olive oil in the places that weren't browning quite evenly, and put it back in for another 15 minutes.
At this point I checked on it and used my handy probe thermometer to check the internal temp (rather than cutting it open to see if it was done). When I googled it, something said the internal temp for a chicken was supposed to be 165. Well, my chicken was reading at 157. The juices were clear, but I wanted to be safe so I put on a little more oil, cranked up the heat, and stuck it back in so it could cook and the skin could get a little crisper.
The whole thing was very much worth it. And this time we actually tried eating the stuff in the pan. The onions were AWESOME. I wish I could figure out what it was. The sweet onions caramelized a bit, took on just a little of the flavor of the lemon and herbs, and were spectacular. I'll have to see if I can figure out how to do something similar in a pan to go with steaks!
One of these days I'll do a step-by-step with pictures. If I remember. Maybe.
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