Books & Spoons Recipe HERBAL CITRUS CHICKEN WITH FETA CHEESE

​The most often asked question from me regarding the Spoons is 'how do you get inspiration to what you make, what makes you decide what is going to be on the blog and when'. And this is relatively easy to answer because all the food made for the posts is consumed in my household. 
The food prepared for the blog is something that stands in the guidelines of what ingredients are available right now, what is in the pantry and/or the fridge right now, and what would be tasty to make, and it evolves from there. Like today's post - I had some feta cheese I wanted to use, my basil was overgrowing and the oranges I had needed to be used as well. Then I just started to play with different ideas, and it ended up being a meal that was so tasty, it was easy to prepare with just a few ingredients, and did I mentioned so delicious, the chicken was so moist and tender to eat! 

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Here the key was the good, quality Greek feta cheese that I used. With this dish I wouldn't use one of those imitation feta cheeses that are sold in oil but get the real thing instead. If you don't like basil, you can use oregano, but then I would maybe change the citrus to lemon.
I marinated the chicken breasts in olive oil with finely chopped garlic and onion in it, for about 3 hours before I started cooking. You could set the chicken in the marinade in the morning before leaving the house, and then prepare the dish when you come home. Also, if you have a Greek oil based salad dressing, you could use that instead. 
The pieces of chicken breasts that I used were on the large side, there is liquid in the pan at the end, if you don't like that you can set the chicken on a roasting pan, and then you don't have to worry about the drippings from the chicken, but it could turn out to be a bit dry that way. So be careful with the baking time, your oven temperature and the size of the chicken breasts if you do use a roasting pan for this dish. 
I used a slotted spoon to carefully remove the chicken from the pan without the drippings and with the feta topping.  I served just a simple cherry tomato salad with the chicken and couscous on the side to keep with the Mediterranean theme.
I hope you enjoy this flavorful dish! Till next time
~ Cheers!

HERBAL CITRUS CHICKEN WITH FETA CHEESE

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- 3 large chicken breasts
- 0,5 cup chopped fresh basil
- 0,5 orange, juiced 
- 150 g / 5 oz Greek Feta cheese
- salt + pepper 

- marinade: 0,5 cup olive oil 
- 0,25 red onion, chopped fine 
- 1 garlic clove, chopped fine
Mix the marinade ingredients together and set the chicken in the marinade in the fridge until you are ready to cook.

1. Warm the oven to 170C / 330 FGet marinated chicken out of the marinade and set into the baking dish
2. Take half the reserved orange juice and drizzle on top of the chicken
3. Add salt and pepper (remember the feta is salty)
4. Add the chopped basil evenly on top of the chicken breasts
5. Add the feta cheese evenly on top of the basil 
6. Drizzle with the remainder of the orange juice
7. Set in the warm oven and bake for an hour or until the chicken is done
8. Serve with salad and couscous on the side