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Unbelievably juicy citrus marinated chicken with fennel slaw and herb relish

Unbelievably juicy citrus marinated chicken with fennel slaw and herb relish

a restaurant-worthy dish that will quite literally have you licking the plate clean

Caroline Anderson's avatar
Caroline Anderson
Apr 19, 2025
∙ Paid
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Unbelievably juicy citrus marinated chicken with fennel slaw and herb relish
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One of the questions I get asked most since I started cooking professionally is whether I cook for myself at home. And when I was single, the answer was basically, “Yeah… eggs.” But since Collin and I started dating, we cook for ourselves almost every night.

Although my home menu has expanded beyond eggs, the style of cooking remains pared down. Almost everything ends up in a bowl over rice or arugula, and we tend to rotate through the same three to five dinners because they come together in about 20 minutes. They’re not necessarily recipes that feel worth sharing.

But every once in a while, I want to get a little more creative.

Recently, I was hired to do a paid video for Natalie’s Juice (still can’t believe I get to do that!). The only instructions were to make a recipe using one of their juices, and to keep the vibe sunny and vibrant. It’s been rainy and gray here for the past couple of weeks so… cooking with juice in my dark kitchen it is!

I pitched a few ideas: slow-cooked pork carnitas with lime and tangerine juice, a creamsicle tart with toasted coconut and whipped cream, and a roasted chicken marinated in the citrus juices. They picked the chicken — but side note, doesn’t that pie sound good? I might have to make it anyway, especially now that I have enough juice in my fridge to supply a small summer camp.

Here’s the thing about submitting all those ideas: I hadn’t actually made any of them yet. They were just dishes I wanted to eat. Honestly, brainstorming for the video was mostly a way to snap myself out of a creative rut.

When I find myself in a rut, I turn to cookbooks — especially restaurant cookbooks. I was flipping through Estela (I love this one!) and came across their take on chermoula. They add fish sauce and sherry vinegar, which gives it the perfect little umami kick.

That got the wheels turning. For the marinade, I’d use the citrus juice, of course, but it needed something savory to balance the acidity — fish sauce, Worcestershire, or even soy sauce would work. The nice thing about a marinade is that it doesn’t need to be exact; it takes a lot for the flavors to really come through. For a bit of heat and smokiness, I added chopped chipotle chiles. I also decided to spatchcock the chicken and sear it skin-side down before roasting, to get the skin as brown and crisp as possible. A weighted press really helps with that — it ensures more of the skin makes contact with the pan. I used this one from JB Prince. It’ll run you about $25 and give your cooking a little restaurant edge. (I don’t make money from that link, I just think it’s a helpful little tool that you might not know about.)

I knew I wanted to drizzle that chermoula-style sauce over the top, and for a fresh crunch, I threw together a simple fennel slaw. I love citrus and fennel together. The result was so good, if I do say so myself. Juicy, flavorful chicken in a tangy, savory pan sauce, with herby relish and crunchy slaw. Perfection.

As a bonus, marinating with citrus means this whole dish comes together relatively quickly. While it might not be a weeknight meal for me, the chicken only needs to marinate for about 30 minutes and then roasts in around 40.

Also if you want to view the original video I’ll link it here. and if you go so far as to like or interact with it, I’ll love you forever because it’s low key (high key) FLOPPING and I’d very much like to get paid to make videos like that in the future.

Citrus marinated chicken with fennel slaw and herb relish

serves about 4

Ingredients:

For the marinade:

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