Recipe for Baked Chicken and Basil

Chicken is an incredibly versatile food. You can roast it, fry it, boil it, sauté it, bake it, and even shake it. Below is a great recipe for baked chicken. I recommend you serve with pasta-you can easily spice it up with some store-bought sauce. It also goes well with mashed potatoes, green beans, or pretty much any side dish. Warning: it took me over an hour to prepare this dish, but that's partly because my oven is old.

Ingredients:

• 1 Lemon
• 6-10 Basil Leaves
• 3-6 Garlic Cloves
• Grape Seed Oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• 6 Chicken Legs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Cover baking pan or dish with aluminum foil.

3. Squeeze the juice from half the lemon into the pan.

4. Finely chop garlic and add to the pan. To get the most flavor from the garlic cloves, press them against the cutting board with your knife, until some of the juices come out.

5. Add oil to the pan.

6. Cover the chicken in the mixture. The easiest way is to roll the chicken legs in the pan. Note: this may get messy.

7. Sprinkle the chicken with pieces of basil leaves, salt, and pepper. Squeeze lemon juice onto the chicken.

8. Bake the chicken for 20-30 minutes.

9. Remove chicken from the oven and turn pieces over in the pan. You may want to use a knife or fork, as the chicken and the pan will be hot. If you want, add more lemon juice. Bake the chicken for 10-15 more minutes.

10. Repeat step 9.

11. With a meat thermometer, check to make sure the chicken is 170 degrees F. If you don't have a meat thermometer, you can simply cut open a piece of the chicken to make sure it is not too pink.

12. Serve with pasta.

Fun Fact:

There are more than 40 different types of basil, and they can come in colors as varied as green, white, and purple. They also have different smells ranging from cinnamon to lemon to thyme. Basil is also medicinal, and the oil of basil has been "found to inhibit strains of bacteria from the genera Staphylococcus, Enterococcus, and Pseudomonas," according to WHfoods.com. Basil also has anti-inflammatory qualities, and can help people with inflammatory bowel conditions or rheumatoid arthritis. And because basil is a good source of vitamin A and magnesium, it "promotes cardiovascular health."

Resources:

Precision Nutrition: What's So Healthy About Basil?

WHFoods: Basil