Lemon-pepper chicken

4 bone-in chicken breast halves, or chicken pieces to serve 4
2 fresh lemons
1 medium onion
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon (freshly ground) pepper

Heat oven to 500 degrees.

Put chicken into a large bowl. Cut lemons in half; squeeze juice over the chicken. Slice onion and add it to the bowl along with olive oil, paprika, thyme, salt and pepper.

Use your hands or tongs to turn the chicken over and over to coat it with seasonings (you may cover and refrigerate at this point for several hours).

Put the chicken skin side up on a shallow roasting pan large enough to hold the pieces in a single layer. Drizzle contents of bowl over chicken (including the onion). Tuck one of the lemon rinds under the rib bones of each chicken piece. Put chicken in the oven and reduce heat immediately to 375 degrees. Bake for 25 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Discard lemons and any onions that may have burned.

To serve a low-fat chicken dish, remove skin before serving and drizzle the chicken with 1 teaspoon of pan juices. To make it a richer dish, serve the chicken skin on and pour all of the pan juices over the pieces (don't scrape the pan, because the high heat in this recipe will likely cause a few of the drippings to burn and you won't want that flavor in the juice).

Serve with baked potatoes and roast carrots.

Serves 4.

Nutrition data with skin: 270 calories, 12 grams fat, 34 grams protein, 6 grams carbohydrate, trace fiber, 660 milligrams sodium.

Without skin: 240 calories, 7 grams fat.

Courier Journal 9March05