Lemon lovers’ lemon chicken with couscous

Chicken second courses

I’ve been making this recipe for more than 25 years. I remember watching a talk show on which Dick Van Patten (the dad in the TV show “Eight is Enough”) and his wife were being interviewed about their life together. There was a cooking segment and they presented a recipe they called Lemon Chicken. I’ve been adapting that basic recipe for all these years and don’t remember much about the original, except that it called for packaged seasoned bread crumbs, a convenience food I gave up a long time ago. This is a great dish for lemon lovers. It’s one of the few times I prefer standard (Eureka) lemons to Meyer lemons. I prefer the tart acid mellowed with chicken stock and white wine. You may go either way. The coating calls for ground fresh bread crumbs. I’ve tried panko, and I think fresh bread crumbs are better since the coating doesn’t really stay crispy after baking the chicken in the sauce. You can use herbs of your choice. What I love about this recipe is that I can make it on a week night, and I can serve it at a dinner party. It’s very versatile.