moist and tender lemon herbed chicken breasts

Directions

1. Make sure the chicken breasts are nicely covered with the skin. Preheat oven to 425 and lay a 10x12 " stainless steel roasting pan with short sides (or skillet or cast iron skillet in which the breasts will fit in without touching) on the lowest level in the oven so that it gets hot. do not grease pan as it will smoke. 2. mix 1/2 of the lemon, herbs, honey, olive oil, salt, pepper in a plastic bag, lay the chicken breasts in the bag and turn bag around so marinade coats all of chicken. This can be done the night before or while preheating the oven (but best if you marinade it longer). 3. remove the chicken and pat with paper towel so that the skin is not wet. 4. carefully remove the pan from oven as it is now hot, drizzle a bit of oil on pan and lay the chicken breasts on the hot pan skin side down and press down with spatula. 5. put back in oven and roast 15 minutes. 6.check to see if skin is golden/brown. if it is nicely colored then turn chicken skin side up; 7. reduce oven to 375 and roast another 10-15 minutes depending on size of chicken. chicken should reach 158-160 when you remove it..it will continue cooking. let it rest 8. to the pan add the other half of all the ingredients scrape any bits and drippings into this liquid. put pan in turned off oven to keep warm while you slice chicken. 9. if you like a lot of sauce for bread dipping then just add more of lemon, olive oil etc. you can even add a bit of orange juice or white wine depending on how much sauce you would like. 10. slice the breasts on a diagonal, sprinkle some more herbs over all and pour the drippings from the pan over all. finish with a sprinkle of maldon salt.
2. If your chicken is pink when you slice it do not panic. simple lay the pieces into the hot drippings sauce you now have in your pan and it will cook it off instantly. just turn it over once and it will be perfect. Do not roast as that will make it dry.