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Title: Roast Chicken With Lemons
Categories: Chicken, Italian
Yield: 4 Servings

3 lb Chicken; up to 4 lb
Salt
Black pepper; ground fresh
-from the mill
2 sm Lemons

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Wash the chicken thoroughly in cold water, both inside and out.
Remove all the bits of fat hanging loose. Let the bird sit for about
10 minutes on a slightly tilted plate to let all the water drain out
of it. Pat it thoroughly dry all over with cloth or paper towels.

Sprinkle a generous amount of salt and black pepper on the chicken,
rubbing it with your fingers over all its body and into its cavity.

Wash the lemons in cold water and dry them with a towel. Soften each
lemon by placing it on a counter and rolling it back and forth as you
put firm downward pressure on it with the palm of your hand. Puncture
the lemons in at least 20 places each, using a sturdy round
toothpick, a trussing needle, a sharp-pointed fork, or similar
implement.

Place both lemons in the birds cavity. Close up the opening with
toothpicks or with trussing needle and string. Close it well, but
dont make an absolutely airtight job of it because the chicken may
burst. Run kitchen string from one leg to the other, tying it at both
knuckle ends. Leave the legs in their natural position without
pulling them tight. If the skin is unbroken, the chicken will puff up
as it cooks, and the string serves only to keep the thighs from
spreading apart and splitting the skin.

Put the chicken into a roasting pan, breast facing down. Do not add
cooking fat of any kind. This bird is self-basting, so you need not
fear it will stick to the pan. Place it in the upper third of the
preheated oven. After 30 minutes, turn the chicken over to have the
breast face up. When turning it, try not to puncture the skin. If
kept intact, the chicken will swell like a balloon, which makes for
an arresting presentation at the table later. Do not worry too much
about it, however, because even if it fails to swell, the flavor will
not be affected.

Cook for another 30 to 35 minutes, then turn the oven thermostat up
to 400 degrees, and cook for an additional 20 minutes. Calculate
between 20 and 25 minutes total cooking time for each pound. There is
no need to turn the chicken again.

Whether your bird has puffed up or not, bring it to the table whole
and leave the lemons inside until it is carved and opened. The juices
that run out are perfectly delicious. Be sure to spoon them over the
chicken slices. The lemons will have shriveled up, but they still
contain some juice; do not squeeze them, they may squirt.

Ahead-of-time note: If you want to eat it while it is warm, plan to
have it the moment it comes out of the oven. If there are leftovers,
they will be very tasty cold, kept moist with some of the cooking
juices and eaten not straight out of the refrigerator, but at room
temperature.

Recipe by Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan,
1995

Recipe FROM: <https://web.archive.org/web/20080908030058/
http://www.recfoodcooking.org/sigs/Christine Dabney/
Roast Chicken with Lemons.html>

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