The Crabby Cook - by Jessica Harper

When I’m desperate (5pm, no idea what’s for dinner), my default plan is to roast a chicken. Nobody doesn’t like roast chicken, which makes it a Miracle Food in a house like mine which is full of picky people. You throw it in the oven and then you’ve got an hour to figure out what you’re going to serve with it, or to address more compelling tasks, like making a martini.

I have to resist the temptation to serve this every day, it’s such comfort food. Just ask my fat dog Oliver, who made off with last week’s chicken when my back was turned, and had a smile on his face even after the verbal abuse.

Above is  a picture of my fat dog Oliver from the perspective of the roast chicken, shortly before the chicken’s disappearance.

Ingredients

One chicken, 4-5 pounds (get organic or free range, it’s much better)
One lemon, cut in half
One garlic head, cut in half
A couple sprigs of rosemary
2 Tbls. butter, softened or melted
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Rinse the chicken and dry it with paper towels. Salt the cavity, and put in a half a lemon, half a garlic head, and the rosemary.

Rub the chicken with the butter and season with salt and pepper.

Roast it for an hour, or until it’s done the way you like it.

Let it sit for ten or fifteen minutes before you carve and serve it with pan juices, but keep it out of reach of your pesky dog.

Variations

Ditch the rosemary and use thyme and/or parsley. And if you’re really on top of things (I’m SO not), you’ll throw in some potatoes to roast with the chicken. Just cut up some Yukon Gold or new potatoes into chunks, rub them with a little oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and hurl them into the pan. Then your dinner is SO done, except for the struggle of preparing something green to go with it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 at 9:50 am and is filed under Chicken Lickin', Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.