Roast Chicken

This is seriously the best roast chicken recipe I have ever tried or tasted.  I can't take all the credit.  I adapted it from Ruth Reichl's recipe.  It is featured in her third book, Garlic and Sapphires, which I am now reading.  Yes, I am continuing my obsession with Ruth.

So, these are the ingredients you will need (plus some butter):

You will need a roasting chicken (3 1/2 pounds or so), 1 lemon, olive oil, 4 medium potatoes, 1 onion (cut into pieces) and 4 garlic cloves (unpeeled). Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Now, wash that chicken (NOT with soap, mind you,, just rinse it with water) and pat it dry. I hate peeling potatoes, so I just got some white ones (or you can just red ones) and cut each into about 8 pieces and leave the peel on them.

Now, melt some butter (do not make it too hot, just a little warm). Gently rub your fingers between the breast and the skin, and load in some butter and then dump in that butter so it oozes all over inside the chick. The instructions say, quite emphatically, not to puncture the skin. I am not sure what happens if you do. So, try not to. Admittedly, it made me want to puncture it just to see what would happen. I am not that daring though.

DO NOT FORGET to take out the packet of innards that they now package inside the little chicken. I throw those away. If anyone has another suggestion, I am all ears. I just don't even want to look at it (a good farmer, I would not make). Once your chicken is buttered inside (this allows the chicken to baste itself while it is cooking), salt and pepper the chicken all over it and inside the cavity.

Take your lemon and poke holes all over it with a fork. Then, place the lemon inside the chicken.

In a bowl (I just did this step in the bottom of the roasting pan and it was fine), put the garlic, potatoes and onions. Drizzle them with salt and pepper and olive oil. Coat the veggies with the oil so each piece is coated. If you have a rack, place the chicken on top of the rack (otherwise, just put the chicken right on top of the vegetables). It should all look something like this:

Place this in the oven for about an hour and fifteen minutes. And, it should look something like this.

Remove the pan from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes. Carve the chicken into serving pieces, surround with the veggies and squeeze the baked lemon over the top. It was so incredibly juicy and tender and just wonderful!! Enjoy!