The recipes I always like the best are the ones that require just a few ingredients, and very simple preparation. If those two requirements are met, I don't mind if the dish itself takes a long time to cook, I can start dinner earlier. I just don't want to spend more than half an hour actually preparing ingredients. Whenever I see a recipe that calls for 2 tsp of this, 1 tablespoon of that, 3 tsps finely minced garlic, 4 tablespoons of shredded this, etc, I just cringe. Those are the dishes that I save for the weekends, when the additional work involved is less daunting.
A really simple recipe, however, just seems to have an extra edge to it. I marvel at how just a few ingredients can produce such a satisfying flavor. When I'm serving it to guests, I feel smug that so little effort produced such rave reviews. Last night, I tried a really simple recipe out of Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, and it's one of those recipes. So simple it's easy enough for weeknights, and really tasty.
All you need are: roaster chicken, 2 small lemons*, salt, pepper, roasting pan w/ rack, some kitchen string.
*the lemons need to be small enough that you can cram them into the bird. If they're too large, you'll split the birds rib-cage, which, while it doesn't affect the taste, makes it look it's harboring an alien.
Preheat your oven to 350°. Rinse and completely dry the chicken. Sprinkle it with salt and pepper, inside and outside, and rubbing it into the skin to really distribute it well.
Roll the lemons across a cutting board with the palm of your hand, sort of squishing them up as you go to soften them up a bit, then poke the hell out of them with a skewer or knife tip or fork. Cram the lemons into the chicken.
Put the chicken on the roasting pan breast side down, and sort of loosely tie up the legs. The goal isn't to keep them from moving or to make the ends meet, but just to keep them from spreading apart too much and splitting the skin during the cooking process.
Put the bird in the oven, and leave it there for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, turn it over, trying not to tear the skin on the bird and let it cook for another 30 minutes. When that time is up, raise the heat on the oven to 400° and let it cook for at least another 20 minutes, more until it's done.
There's no need to baste the bird or use any additional cooking fat. And the point of not tearing the skin is that, if you don't, the chicken will swell up with the juices. It won't hurt if you do tear the skin, though.
Leave the lemons in the chicken when you carve it, and serve the pieces with the juices that run out of the bird. For a 4 lb bird, with my oven, total cooking time was 1 hour, 35 minutes.
This chicken was amazingly juicy and flavorful, and the lemon wasn't a dominating flavor at all, the meat was infused with just a hint of citrus tang to it. I'll definitely make this one again.
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3 comments:
You what I like that's super easy, juicy and tasty? Game Hen, rubbed in butter, sprinkled with salt, pepper, garlic powder, rosemary, and thyme. It takes like 1 hour to cook and like I said, it's also super juicy and really tasty too.
Yum! Thanks for sharing. :)
Here's mine. Same chicken that you prepared for this recipe, Celeste, only put six to eight large, whole, garlic cloves in the cavity instead of the lemon. Place in Romertopf and bake for 1.5 to 2 hours. So good, my father-in-law was sure I had bought it at a deli.
I will certainly try this! It sounds wonderful!
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