Sautéed Chicken With Meyer Lemon Recipe (2024)

Chose Melissa's recipe as inspiration for what was on hand: jar of Trader Joe's preserved lemons, chicken tenderloins, shallots, garlic, parsley. Patted dry, but didn't rinse, lemons and fried them. LOTS of shallots. Cut tenderloins into bite sized pieces. Lots of parley. TJ jasmine rice cooked in One Pot in FOUR minutes. Squeezed fresh lemon juice to top. Super easy (esp. if like me you never measure or follow times of anything, just enjoy glass of wine.) Will make again.

I used a wok and removed the cooked leeks and lemon to a side dish until the chicken was almost cooked and then added the leeks and lemon back to the wok for a fast warm-up.

I made this dish with oranges, because I didn't have Myer Lemons (which are sweeter than traditional lemons). I eliminated the sugar entirely and cut the salt in half. It was wonderful. :) My family wants it again.

After seeing other notes mention that it was a bit dry, I saved the liquid from the second cooking of the lemons and used a bit of it to deglaze the pan. I then poured that over the dish at the end.

Tastes great! Marinated chicken strips in oil/rosemary/garlic/S&P for a few hrs in refrig; seemed to enhance flavors. Like a much earlier commenter, found the end result a bit dry even with the squeezes of lemon juice. And this was with thighs -- beware if using chicken breasts! Next time I'll toss in a pat or two of butter to finish after taking pan off heat.

Adapted for use with bow tie pasta and artichoke hearts:
Saute lemon slices in 2T butter + 2T olive oil until caramelized. Add steamed artichoke hearts, toss until coated. Serve over cooked pasta with shaved parmesan + fresh cracked black pepper.

We really liked this easy recipe! I used regular lemons and only blanched them once. And I used shallots instead of leeks, since that was what I had in the house. Will definitely make again.

Leeks or any type of onions are not my friends, so I used haricot vertes instead. Beautiful presentation over plain white rice. But the flavor - oh, my goodness! So much better than using purchased preserved lemons, and so easy. I was a little hesitant cooking the lemons over high heat for fear of them burning by the time everything else had cooked, but made myself follow the recipe exactly. Well worth it. The caramelization of the lemons is fabulous!

Such bright flavor to this easy dish. Next time I will bump up the amount of leeks and lemon for more robust servings/leftovers. Easy to prep ahead too.

Love the recipe! Next time I'll remove the leek mixture before sautéing the chicken to prevent overcooking and burning the leeks. Once the chicken is close to being done, I'll add the leek mixture back in.

so yeah. WOW! Yummy! I planted a Meyer Lemon tree this past Spring, and harvested eight precious lemons from it recently. Totally surprised I got that many! So I doubled this recipe tonight and used half of my precious crop. And it was superb!

The 30 minute time projection for this dish counts only cooking time, no allowance for all the slicing, cleaning up the leeks, etc. Allow at least an hour unless you're a lot handier with a knife than I am!

This was good! I overdid the rosemary, throwing everything off balance -- definitely something I'll be careful about when I make this again (and I will). What I like most about this recipe is the lemons. I've often needed preserved lemons for recipes and been unable to easily find them where I live. This technique gives you a quick and fresh substitute (and less expensive substitute) that I'm certain I will use often.

One of our all-time fast favorites; it leaves you wanting more. I usually use onions instead of leeks so no special shopping is needed. I have a Meyer lemon tree and rosemary in the yard, but have also used store lemons (Eureka?) and dried rosemary. The quick preserving technique is much less complicated than it looks. Also, letting the chicken strips sear untouched makes a big difference in texture and flavor. I flip the seared mat of chicken over before mixing in the sautéed lemon/onion/leek.

Outside comments— can use Trader Joe’s jar of preserved lemons, lots of parsley, and lots of shallots, instead of the leaks.

Tofu works — I’ve made this many times with chicken breasts and thighs, and this year used tofu that i had cut into 1x2x0.5 inch blocks, frozen, defrosted, and drained. Make sure the pan and oil are hot, and brown it but don’t cook it as long as chicken or move it around as much. It’s delicious alongside noodles. My husband was skeptical but deemed it a success, as did I. I also found that you can make extra Meyer lemon peels and freeze them, making this dish very easy to put together.

Easy. 3-4 stars. Definitely needs the lemon juice at the end. Used 6 cloves of garlic.

Only problem with recipe is not specifying size of skillet especially when you are cutting recipes in half

If you didn't make the recipé, but instead made 5 additions/substitutions, please don't tell us about it. I came here for Melissa Clark's expertise because she is an award-winning professional. You are not an award-winning professional.

Cooked 1/18/24 Be sure to sear properly. Cooked sautéed artichoke hearts in butter on the side and when combine with the chicken, it was so much better!

I found the texture of the lemon rinds off-putting and there was significant flavor loss of lemons in the blanching. Lots of lemon juice, some zest with white wine reduction would have been much better.

Just made this for the first time. Inspired to use our copious Meyer lemons that we harvested this year. I am very surprised… both my wife and I are taken aback by the flavor. It’s bitter, which could work, but paired with the rosemary, we both agreed that it tasted like a household cleaner smelled. After guessing through anguished bites, we realized that it’s Pine Sol. I followed the recipe to a T. And I’ve never disagreed with a 5 star review on NYT Cooking. Maybe just not for us.

Be sure to get Meyer lemons. I was so excited to try this recipe, but my tree is just budding - so I went to sprouts and bought regular lemons. So tart and awful. I’m sure it’s lovely with rice, but I ended up just adding more onion and roasting veggies. It was fine that way - without the lemon. So sad.

This is one of my favorite recipes! I've made it as it's written countless times, but I've also made it with substitutions when ingredients weren't on hand—e.g., regular lemons for Meyers, scallions for leeks, poultry seasoning for herbs de Provence. No matter what, it always comes out perfectly!

Delicious. Used shallot since no leek and added a pat of butter at the end. Subtle but delicious.

After realizing I accidentally skipped the second cooking of lemons and reading the comment about dryness, I thought, “Eureka! Orange juice!” Cooked down about 3/4 cup of OJ in the final cooking step and the resulting sauce is magic. Wouldn’t do it any other way now!

Made as written - yum! Then adapted the leek/lemon with halibut and a second rave meal.

I thought this was delicious! Didn't have sugar so omitted. Used more lemons per the comments. Also used chicken breast. Added mushrooms and sliced red peppers. Yum yum!

My family found this dish boring. I think next time I will triple the amount of of lemons or maybe use a mix of blanched and non-blanched lemon slices.