This recipe was inspired by a dish I had in Asheville. I love lavender anything, and if you've made other recipes from my blog, you know how much I love to bake with it (peep my lavender lemon cookies!).
When I saw grilled lavender chicken on the menu at Corner Kitchen, I knew I had to order it. The lavender was the perfect balance of floral and savory. You could taste the lavender, but it wasn't overpowering.
When I came home, I brainstormed a marinade and have to say this might be my new favorite chicken recipe!
It's so ridiculously easy to make and feels like a gourmet meal with the lavender buds and lemon zest.
Ingredients
Just super, simple ingredients.
All you need is a fresh lemon, balsamic vinegar, avocado oil, salt, pepper and the ingredients to make the lavender syrup - lavender buds, sugar and water.
Mix all these ingredients together and allow the chicken to marinate for 2 hours. After just 2 hours, the chicken absorbs so much flavor!
How to Give Chicken Flavor
Using an herb infused simple syrup has been a game changer! I make homemade simple syrups all the time for cocktails and have been looking for more uses for it other than beverages.
When I was brainstorming this marinade for how to infuse lavender into the chicken, I realized a simple syrup may help give it more flavor without being too much.
While I love adding dried herbs to chicken, the flavor isn't as noticeable. Infused olive oils and simple syrups work well for adding flavor since they're more potent.
I've now taken this idea and used a thyme simple syrup in a marinade, and it turned out well too!
I love adding the actual dried lavender buds to the chicken. They add texture and additional flavor and aroma. I would bake the chicken at a lower temperature such as 350 rather than 425 to prevent the buds from burning.
Serving Recommendations
You can serve this chicken however you want, but I highly recommend serving it up with a leafy green salad with pickled onions, feta cheese and quinoa.
For a vinaigrette you can make something similar to the marinade and use it to dress the greens.
Otherwise, try pairing it with lemon asparagus and roasted potatoes.
Storage
Recipe Tips and FAQs
I've trialed this recipe at 425 degrees and found the higher temperature almost gave a burned taste to the lavender buds in the marinade. I would recommend keeping the temperature lower at 350.
I'm sure you could find a way to get a similar flavor with an extract; however, I've never done this and can't recommend the amount to use. If you try this and have luck - let us know how much you used below!
Lavender Lemon Chicken
Ingredients
- 1.5 lb chicken breast
- ¼ cup lavender syrup
- ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
- 3 tablespoons avocado oil
- zest and juice of 1 lemon (around 3 tablespoons)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons dried lavender buds
Instructions
- Mix the lavender syrup, balsamic vinegar, avocado oil, juice of 1 lemon and zest, salt, pepper and lavender buds.
- Add the chicken and coat well in the marinade. Refrigerate for 2 hours to allow the chicken time to marinate.
- Once ready to cook, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cook the chicken for 30-35minutes or until the internal temperature reads 165 degrees.
Notes
- If you do thinly sliced chicken breast, it will cook faster and take around 15 minutes.
Nutrition
(Nutrition values are calculated by third-party software and an estimate that can vary based on product brands and cooking methods.)
Holly says
tried this recipe the other day and loved it. only problem was there wasn't enough. going to try it with the whole Cornish hens next time I make it
Monica Nedeff says
So glad to hear you loved it, Holly! It's definitely a favorite of mine! When you say there wasn't enough, are you talking about the marinade? If so, do you know if you used close to 1.5lbs of chicken? A larger quantity of chicken would need more marinade. Hope that helps!
Marti says
Made this tonight and it was a hit! So much flavor! Like that the lower temp of 350 oven isn't overbearingly hot for a summer day.
Monica Nedeff says
Yayy so happy to hear it, Marti!