when karl gives you lemons...

...make food with lemons.

karl is my co-worker who hosted the superbowl party this past weekend (remember the 15 pounds of beef?). he also happens to have a lemon tree in his backyard and unloaded an entire grocery bag full of lemons to each and every person at the party. yes, that's a lot of lemons.

so what to do with all these lemons? well, i hate baking, so lemon dessert of any sort is out of the question. my boss once made homemade limoncello from a gaggle of lemons, but that just seems like too much work, AND i would have to wait 3 months to fully enjoy it. so instead, i will just try and incorporate lemon into everything meal that i make.

when i came home from rugby practice last night, i was rummaging through my fridge when i found chicken i had taken out of the freezer two days before to defrost. ruh roh. i decided to make a marinade and let the chicken wallow in it while i watched heroes from monday night. i also made some couscous to go alongside it and came up with a pretty tasty lunch for today (if i do say so myself). i'm sure i could make this fancier and whatnot, but i was just using whatever ingredients i had at home to work with. i wasn't about to go to the store at 10 pm after 2 hours of tackling and sprinting.

okay, here's the recipe:

l-l-l-lemony chicken and couscous


2 chicken breasts
2 lemons, zested and juiced - about 1/2 cup of lemon juice (these were super juicy lemons since they came from karl's tree, so you may need more than 2 if you get them from the store)
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp coriander
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup olive oil
healthy pinch salt
healthy pinch pepper

3/4 cup chicken stock
3/4 cup couscous
1/4 cup feta (any variety; i used a sundried tomato-basil feta)
1 lemon, juiced
2 scallions, chopped
salt & pepper, to taste

combine the marinade ingredients (lemon zest/juice through pepper) in a bowl. mix them all together. pour it into a gallon ziploc with the chicken breasts in there as well. make sure the marinade coats both breasts thoroughly. seal it up and put it in the fridge and let it hang out for 30-45 minutes (or however long it takes you to watch a dvr'd episode of [insert your favorite show here]).

after it's done marinating, get your chicken out from the fridge. get a grill pan nice and hot on medium-high heat. when it's heated, get your chicken on the grill. cook for about 6-7 on each side (i had some fat breasts, so they took a while*).

while the chicken is cooking, get the chicken stock into a small pot. bring to a boil, then put in the couscous and take the pot off the heat. let it sit for 5 minutes while the couscous cooks through. after it has poofed up to its magical goodness, put the feta, scallions, and lemon juice into the couscous, along with the salt and pepper. now, fluff; fluff, i say!! make sure all the ingredients get mixed through.

after you take the chicken off the grill, let it hang out on your cutting board for a bit so the juices redistribute and you don't lose all of the yummy goodness on your cutting board. slice those bad boys up and serve it with your freshly fluffed feta couscous.


3 lemons down, 24 more to go...

*that's what she said.