Herb & Citrus Oven Roasted Chicken

I had planned several weeks worth of meals several weeks ago, and since there's been a few nights in there that I haven't had to cook for one reason or another, I still have a few meals in the freezer that I'll be fixing over the next few days. However, I do have to plan some meals again, or once the freezer meals are gone that I fixed a while back the family will be scavenging the kitchen and I'll be pulling my hair out!

Yesterday I did some grocery shopping to take advantage of some amazing sales and I made a stop at Costco this weekend to restock a few staples, but I didn't do the 'after meal plan' shopping. That's the shopping I need to do after I've planned meals around the items I have and any meats that are on sale, so it's not usually a big trip to the store. So, the first order of business is the meal plan. Right after dinner. Okay, I guess that makes it the second order of business.

Since I don't have the meal plan ready to share with you just yet, you get to see what tonight's dinner is! Keep in mind, this was part of the last meal plan, and it was semi-prepared several weeks ago and thrown in the freezer so that as it thawed the meat would be marinating and dinner would be uber-yummy. If you know me at all, you know that I am a Pinterest addict. That's where this, and many other meals came from. Georgia over at thecomfortofcooking.com shared this dish back in April of last year, but thanks to the art of sharing on Pinterest, I was lucky enough to come across it!

I know you're thinking "Come on Shawna, get on with it, get to the recipe already!", so while I'm sure you're already aware I could ramble on and on about this recipe or how I found it (let's be honest, when writing I can ramble about almost anything), let's get to the good stuff!

I pulled the bag out of the freezer and had it thawing in the fridge so it would be oven ready at dinner time, and it was thawed perfectly when I needed it. I plopped the chicken into the pans, and all the juice that the chicken had been marinating in was poured in with it. I barely got started slicing, and Ray walked into the kitchen and told me how good it smelled... huh? I guess I just wasn't paying attention to it, but he said that just the marinade made the kitchen smell great.

Only five leg quarters, but it stuffed six people!

Be sure to pour all of the marinade over the chicken!

So I finished slicing the onion, lemons and oranges and slid the onion slices under the chicken and scattered the slices of lemons and oranges over the chicken. I sprinkled a little more seasoning over everything like the recipe directions called for- although I have to admit, it had a lot of seasonings just from what was in the marinade! I did tweak the amounts for what I was cooking though- the recipe called for one each- onion, lemon and orange. I buy the smaller oranges- cuties or halos- since the family will actually snack on those, so instead of using one, I obviously had to use more. They were so tiny I ended up using six, and I used 2 lemons. The lemon was big enough though, that I didn't feel the need to slice more than one.

Not-so-perfectly sliced... but sliced just the same!

It almost seemed like a bit much once I had the chicken covered with lemons and mandarin oranges- I couldn't see much chicken! I was worried it would be too tart or too sweet for chicken, but it worked out great. The chicken was moist, tender, and the flavor turned out to be just right. It had a touch of sweet and a bit of tang to it, but was by far NOT overbearing. Everyone loved it, and I know you will too!

Before going in the oven. I didn't get a chance to get the
after picture- everyone was ready to dive in!

For the full recipe, and photos that will make you drool (seriously, her pictures make mine look... well, bad. I think it's partly that she had legs and thighs, whereas I used the full leg quarters, and of course she's more experienced with the camera, and probably with slicing fruits and veggies!). Seriously though folks, go check out Georgia's site, The Comfort of Cooking for the full, easy-peasy, recipe. You'll thank me later!

Be sure to let me know how yours turned out!