Lemon Paprika Chicken

I always think that simple is best, especially when it comes to cooking, that goes for both technique and ingredients. Using simple, fresh, quality ingredients to marinate in this Lemon Paprika Chicken, makes for a recipe that is both visually appealing and delicious.

Marinating meats is a simple and helpful addition to your cooking techniques that will forever change the way you cook meat and vegetables. A marinade is also a great way to help tenderize meat, making it even more tasty for the whole family.

Acidic marinades have three basic ingredients which include a fat, usually an oil, an acid, which can be wine, vinegar or citrus, and lastly the flavorings, such as spices, garlic and herbs. An acidic marinade, which is said to break down the proteins in meat, makes it more tender and juicy. It's important to remember you don't want to over marinate, meaning two hours is enough time, otherwise the opposite can happen and the meat will become tougher, you could also go a bit lighter on the acids (wine, vinegar or citrus).

Another type of marinade for meats would be an enzymatic marinade, which would include tenderizing enzymes that can be found in pineapples, papayas, kiwis or ginger. Enzymatic marinating is said to break down the connective tissue in meat, again making the meat more tender and juicy. As with the acidic marinade you don't want to marinate for too long, only with the enzymatic marinade it will become very mushy rather than tougher, like the acidic marinade, two hours is also a good amount of time.

Lastly, a marinade made with dairy is your mildest type of marinade, and if done properly is said to be the most tenderizing. For the dairy marinade you can use buttermilk (which is actually a bit acidic) or greek yogurt, some acid and your flavorings (spices, herbs, and garlic). This type of marinade, you will want to leave for a lot longer about twelve hours.

Keep your marinades simple, think fresh, simple, quality ingredients, a simple marinade of olive oil, garlic, salt, herbs and lemon will completely change the taste of your meat, making it juicy and delicious. Don't forget that you can also marinate your vegetables to perfection, again with simple, fresh, quality ingredients that will change the way you think about dinner.

Not only are lemons great to use in cooking from lemonade to taste salad dressing, and yummy dessert recipes, but lemons have some health benefits as well. Drinking lemon water helps to add some alkalinity to your diet, and smelling lemons is also a healthy benefit too. Lemon oil is used in aromatherapy. The smell of lemon oil may not benefit the human immune system, but it definitely helps to enhance mood. The low pH of lemon juice makes it antibacterial, and in India, the lemon is used in Indian traditional medicines such as Siddha medicine and Ayurveda.