Lemon Chicken LunchBots Bento

Lemon Chicken Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Oh my goodness... can it be a bento that doesn't include a ... thermal?? Yeah, I'm kind of getting over the thermal thing right now. It's actually a lot more satisfying to arrange a traditional bento box for a change. Plus, I made lemon chicken, which goes so nicely with some rice and vegetablian accents. I used a LunchBots Clicks for the larger box -- it's slightly deeper and is practical for the main protein and stuff -- and along with the chicken and rice I added the usual broccoli tree, carrots and bear-shaped Okinawan sweet potato. I used a very similar box for the sides, and even though LunchBots does make the smaller Clicks for this purpose, the one I used here has the advantage of the removable, adjustable divider -- so fun and handy! Maybe LunchBots can come up with something like this? Hmmm? I didn't really need to separate the strawberries and blueberries from the satsuma and grapes, but well, why not! Heh. I think the lemon chicken wasn't as great a hit as I'd hoped. I think my kids are just way too stuck on shoyu chicken. I haven't tried a rosemary or other herb chicken though. Maybe I'll give something like that a try next. Anyway, the adults like lemon chicken because of the tart sour nature but my kids immediately blurted out "Is there lemon in here or something?!"
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Lemon Chicken (from The Mom 100 Cookbook)

1 cup of fresh lemon juice (from 4 to 6 lemons)
2/3 cup of olive oil 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons of finely minced garlic
1 teaspoon of dried oregano or thyme
Coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
4 bone-in chicken breast halves with skin (2-2 1/2 pounds)
6 bone-in chicken thighs with skin (2 1/2 – 3 pounds)
1/4 cup Italian flat-leaf parsley (optional)

Preheat the broiler with the rack placed about 8 inches away from the heat source.

Put the lemon juice, olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, oregano or thyme, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper in a container with a lid and shake well to blend.

Place the chicken pieces skin side down on a rimmed baking sheet and salt them lightly. Broil for 15 minutes. Turn the pieces, lightly salt them, and broil them until the skin is crisp and golden brown and the juices run clear when the pieces are pierced with a fork, 15 to 20 minutes longer.

Remove the chicken from the broiler, leaving the broiler on. Cut the breast and thighs in half, if necessary. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of fat.

Shake the lemon sauce again and pour it over the chicken. Turn the pieces over so they are evenly coated with the sauce, making sure all of the pieces end up skin side down.

Broil the chicken until it has browned a bit more, another 2 minutes, then turn the pieces skin side up and broil them until the skin is browned a bit more, about 3 minutes longer. Remove the chicken from the baking sheet, and if you’re using parsley, stir it in the sauce still in the baking sheet. Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve.