Tuscan Lemon Chicken With Warm Bean Salad

This is my adaptation of an old recipe from Bon Appetit. Because the chicken has to marinate, and because I think it's best with dried rather than canned beans, it requires advance planning. But it's really quite simple and very good. It can be made with other chicken parts, but I like it best with chicken breasts. Note: Preparation time does not include soaking and cooking time for dried beans, but does include three hours for marinating chicken.

• Ready In: 4 hrs 20 mins
• Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 4  whole chicken breasts, skin-on,bone-in,split
• 9  cloves garlic (or more)
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons coarse salt
• 1⁄4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper (or more)
• 1⁄3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 4  tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 3  tablespoons  chopped fresh rosemary
• 2 1⁄2 tablespoons  finely grated lemons, rind of
• 1⁄2 teaspoon sugar
• 1  lb  dried cannellini beans or 3 (15 ounce) cans cannellini beans

Directions

1. If using dry beans, rinse beans and place in bowl.
2. Cover with three inches of water; leave to soak overnight or at least eight hours.
3. Drain beans.
4. Place in large saucepan, coverered with three inches of water.
5. Do NOT salt.
6. Allow to simmer one to two hours till soft (older beans take longer).
7. Drain.
8. If using canned beans, empty beans into colander and rinse well with warm water.
9. Place chicken in baking dish large enough to accomodate all the pieces.
10. A 12" x 9" pan should be adequate.
11. Roughly chop five (or more if you love it) cloves of garlic.
12. Sprinkle chopped garlic with coarse salt.
13. Mash garlic and salt into a paste.
14. Rub paste onto chicken pieces; sprinkle with ground pepper.
15. Whisk together the lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of oil, 2 tablespoons of rosemary, the grated rind and the sugar.
16. Pour mixture over chicken, cover chicken and chill up to three hours.
17. If you like, you can turn it in the marinade once or twice--not a critical step.
18. Preheat oven to 350°F Place drained cannellini in a large skillet.
19. Add the remaining garlic, chopped fine, the remaining rosemary and olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
20. Uncover chicken and bake 35-40 minutes, basting occasionally.
21. Remove from oven.
22. Preheat broiler.
23. Broil chicken till golden brown--3-5 minutes.
24. When the chicken is almost done, gently warm the beans till heated through.
25. Ladle beans onto serving platter.
26. Top with chicken and juices from pan.
27. Note: If you would like more sauce (and your baking dish is safe for the stovetop--if not, scrape any fond into a saute pan), place baking dish over medium high heat, add a splash of white wine and or chicken stock, deglaze and reduce.