Dill chicken is a dish usually consisting of grilled or pan-seared skinless chicken that has been seasoned with fresh or dried dill. This chicken recipe can also include lemon or mustard flavoring and other spice flavors depending on individual tastes. Dill chicken can be either a lighter or heartier dish depending on some of the ingredient choices. Some cooks include a sauce recipe based on chicken stock, seasonings, and a thickener such as corn starch in their dill chicken for a richer variation on this dish.
Many cooks like to make dill chicken as a healthy, lighter dish; recipes can often call for either pre-skinned chicken breasts or other chicken pieces that need to have the skin removed prior to cooking. While chicken skin can have good amounts of tasty flavor, it usually also has higher numbers of calories and saturated fat grams. Cooking with herbs such as dill normally adds in plenty of flavor as an alternative without the unhealthy fat content. Chicken stock without a thickening agent is another ingredient often included in lighter dill chicken dishes.
Cooking with dill can be a somewhat different process depending on the choice between freshly picked dill weed or the dried and ground dill weed commonly found in grocery store seasoning sections. Fresh dill is generally used in different amounts because it can result in a more intense taste after a relatively short cooking time. Most home cooks equate roughly one teaspoon of dried dill to one tablespoon of fresh dill. In order to keep the taste of fresh dill in a chicken recipe, the dill weed usually needs to be added to the mixture close to the end of the cooking time; this herb tends to lose flavor if exposed to high heat for longer than a few minutes.
Some dill chicken recipes include chopped onions, minced garlic, sliced mushrooms, and sometimes stewed tomatoes for additional taste and color. Many recipes include instructions to first brown the chicken on both sides in a skillet before adding the vegetables of choice. The garlic and other vegetables can also be cooked separately in a stove top pan while the chicken pieces are browned on a grill. Lemon juice is another ingredient that can complement the dill flavor in this dish. Salt and black pepper are usually included to taste, although cooks who prefer a spicier dish often add some paprika, cayenne pepper, or chili powder as well.
