Roast Chicken w/ Two Lemons

carlfense

carlfense

New member
This recipe has one of the better effort/cost to results ratios that I've seen. It's easily the best roast chicken that I've ever tasted and you can make an entire meal out of the same pan if you throw some potatoes and carrots in with the bird. All for less than $10. (Credit to Marcella Hazan for the recipe.)

Ingredients

a 3-4lb whole chicken

Salt

Pepper

2 rather small lemons

Instructions

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash lemons and set aside to dry.

2) Rinse entire chicken. Cut off all hanging fat. Let chicken air dry for 10-15 minutes. Dry thoroughly with paper towels. (I took the extra step of using a hair dryer . . . seriously . . . to really dry the exterior. Drier exterior gives a crispier skin.)

3) Season the bird inside and out with a LOT of salt and pepper.

4)Roll the lemons with light pressure across your countertop with your hand to soften them. Poke each lemon at least 20 times with the tines of a fork or a toothpick and stuff the lemons into the chest cavity of the bird.

5) Loosely close up the cavity of the chicken (with the lemons inside) using toothpicks or trussing string. Tie the chicken legs together being careful that they remain in a natural resting position.

6) Place the chicken breast side down into an ungreased roasting pan and roast in the upper third of the oven for 30 minutes.

7) Turn the chicken over and roast for another 30 minutes. Crank the heat to 400 degrees and roast for 20 minutes more.

8) Remove from oven and let rest covered for ~5 minutes. Carve and serve and drizzle the juice from the bottom of the pan over the slices.

RoastChickenWithLemonWeekend_large.jpg


 
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carlfense said:
Tie the chicken legs together being careful that they remain in a natural resting position.
Click to expand...
If you don't have kitchen twine or don't want to tie the legs, cut a 1" slit in the flappy skin on one side of the cavity, near the tail (or where the tail would be). Stick the "knuckle" of the leg on the opposite side of your cut through the slit, then cross the other leg under the first. Pressure from the second leg pushing on the first should keep them together, and the skin is tough enough that it *usually* won't rip. If it rips, cut a slit on the opposite side and try again.

You can also tuck the wings back and behind the back of the bird, although describing how to do that is a bit wonky. I don't think about it, I just do it.

The best thing about doing it this way is that you don't get your twine roll full of chicken bacteria, or if you've cut your twine ahead of time, you're not guessing how much you need and having waste or finding out you have too little.

 
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This looks delicious, thanks for the recipe. I'm going to give this a shot this weekend. Only a few things can touch crispy chicken skin ...

 
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