Green Tea Chicken with Basil & Garlic

Another yummy and versatile recipe using Lipton PureLeaf. Super healthy, too- though as you can see above, I used dark meat, I didn’t add any extra oil.

Because this is really not a recipe, more of a guideline, I’m going to tell you what I did & used, but you can really change up every last bit of this recipe.

I had chicken quarters – bone-in, skin-on, so I used those. You can use whatever you’d like – I think even a whole chicken will work for this, though you’ll need to consider something to put inside to keep it moist- perhaps garlic/lemon (I love cutting a whole lemon in half and popping it into the cavity of my chickens before I roast them) and onion, or if you’re in a creative mood, some way to put tea inside the chicken itself- an aluminum container, a small cup?

Method

1- Soak chicken in Lipton PureLeaf Green Tea with Honey. I soaked it for about an hour, flipping (using the same ziploc bag technique I described here). If you use a whole chicken, use a larger bag, and maybe soak a little longer.

2- Chop basil and garlic. In a small bowl, mash together with a bit of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Optional: add a bit of lemon juice. Once it was fragrant, I added a splash of Lipton PureLeaf Green Tea with Honey and mashed it into a sort of paste.

3- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

4- Remove chicken from the soak; reserve liquid. Place chicken in baking pan; rub paste all over. I smushed some down under the skin, too, as you can see in the above picture – in hindsight, maybe I should have put all of it under the skin, to prevent bits of garlic from overbrowning, but it came out fine in the end. It’s all a matter of preference, and how pretty you want it to look, I guess.

5- Pour reserved liquid from the soak into the bottom of the pan. Bake at 350 degrees until chicken is done (this depends on how thick the thicken is, what cut it is, etc. etc. etc.) – if you cut into the chicken, juices should run clear, though I try not to test it that way, as I like my juices to stay IN the chicken.

Serve, and enjoy! I think with some garlic mashed potatoes this would be great, or a tomato/basil salad… yummy!

Extremely versatile – you can change this up to be anything, really, but the green tea flavor shows through nicely and complements the basil/garlic combo very well, working together to create a totally new flavor profile. Remember, there are a LOT of antioxidants in this green tea, and using the tea like so imparts not just the flavor, but parts of the health benefits in the chicken.

Happy eating!!!

Don’t forget to enter my contest here for free lunch at Pump!

*This recipe is another part of the few I created for the Cafe PureLeaf event… be sure to drop by and say hi if you can!!!