Recently it’s been raining pretty hard here in California, but winter here is nothing compared to the winters we have back in Russia. So, when the rain stopped today, I had a serious craving to grill some of this Italian Lemon Summer Chicken. The flavor reminds me so much of summer, and grilling in the middle of winter – I had to take advantage of the California weather while I’m here.

We had chicken like this when I was growing up; the recipe evolving from a restaurant my mother worked at in her youth, started by airline worker friends who saved up thousands of little airline bottles of liquor from cleaning the planes after the flights and quit their jobs to create a new restaurant. There’s no alcohol in this recipe, but if you get the impulse to have cocktails out of miniature glasses, that may be why. This is another one of my favorite healthy grilled chicken recipes that adds variety to the chicken options. So, without further delay, return your trays and chairs to their upright position, stow any personal items in the overhead compartments or under the chair in front of you and prepare for landing at our next destination – American Flavor!

The ingredients are very simple and inexpensive for this meal. Here’s what you will need: Italian Summer Chicken

1 whole chicken

1/4 cup (4Tbsp) butter.

1 lemon

2 Tbsp dried Italian seasoning (Marjoram, Thyme, Rosemary, Savory, Sage, Oregano, and Basil)

Start by cutting the chicken into 8 pieces (plus 2 tenders). I explained this butchering method in one of my previous posts. How to Butcher a Whole Chicken. Starting with a chicken cut into these pieces allows us to monitor the cooking temperature of each piece individually and have flavor sounding each one.

Once we start the fire in the grill, or start heating up the grill pan, start preparing the sauce by cutting 1 lemon in half and squeezing all the juice into a bowl.