This recipe is so easy that you’ll never cook chicken without it again. Again, feel free to add some fresh herbs or experiment with spice blends.

You can either grill or bake the chicken. If you decide to use a grill, flip the meat halfway through until grill marks appear. If you’re using an oven, bake at 425°F. Whether you grill or bake, the chicken will be ready once an instant-read thermometer registers 165°F.

Ingredients:

• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 medium lemons
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 teaspoons dried or 2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano, rosemary, thyme, or a combination (optional)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 to 2 pounds chicken pieces (bone-in or boneless, skin-on or skinless)

Directions:

1. Start by preparing the garlic and lemons. In a medium bowl, grate the garlic and zest one lemon. Then, squeeze the juice from both lemons into the bowl. It should give you about ⅓ cup.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and marinate. Add olive oil, herbs, salt, and pepper to the mixture and stir well. Place the chicken in the marinade and coat evenly. Then, cover and leave in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. You can refrigerate it for up to 4 hours.
3. Once you remove the chicken from the marinade, let the excess juices drip off before cooking.

Whether you use it as a noun or a verb, shrimp boil is a word combo that many will be happy to hear. This is a flavorful regional dish enjoyed from the mid-Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico. This dish is commonly cooked over propane flames in very tall pots and the must-have ingredients are potatoes, corn, and, of course, shrimpy goodness, with many optional ingredient variations to choose from.

The Key to the Perfect Shrimp Boil

Once the ingredients are chosen, such as corn, potatoes, shrimp, Old Bay spice mix, and delicious Italian sausage, it’s time to reveal the real trick to getting that sought-after flavor. It all comes down to the flavorful cooking liquor. Use alliums, lemons, and spices to design the flavor that suits your taste. Add to that a bottle of clam juice and a bottle of white wine, and the boil will build up an amazing flavor.

The Delicate Nuances of This Recipe

Use large shrimp and keep them in the shell to prevent overcooking. The shells also add a bit of flavor to both the broth and the meat. You don’t want anything to overcook, so the timing needs to be just right. Add the potatoes and corn to the boil first, as they take longer to cook. Follow that up with the sausage, and add the crustaceans last. Feel free to customize the flavor to your liking. This dish is often served by covering the table in a couple of layers of newspaper and serving all the cooked and drained ingredients spread on top of it.

Prepare the Cajun Spice Butter and Prep the Cooking Liquor

The best part of eating a shrimp boil is having a delicious seasoned buttery coating on top of each morsel. To make delicious Cajun seasoning butter, melt some butter and infuse it with Cajun or Old Bay seasoning, lemon zest, salt, hot sauce, and garlic. Remember to keep it covered so it stays warm.

Time for Boiling

In a tall pot, bring water to a boil, combined with wine, onion, garlic heads, clam juice, bay leaves, thyme, quartered lemons, and salt. You can also add crab boil packets for extra flavor. Put the fitted strainer into the cooking pot that’s full of boiling cooking liquor. In stages, add the potatoes, then the corn, followed by the sausage, and lastly, shrimp.

The Final Touches

When everything’s cooked, lift the strainer out of the cooking pot slowly, letting all the liquids drain out. You can discard the liquid. Transfer the strained potatoes, sausage, corn, and shrimp to a big, heat-proof bowl and add the Cajun seasoning butter you prepared earlier. Toss well to coat every bite. It’s ready to serve!