Slow Roasted Lemon Chicken

This chicken recipe is for a delicately flavored, slow roasted chicken.  I choose this recipe when I want to have left overs for other dishes and I don't want the herby or garlicky flavors of the chicken to be so pronounced.  This chicken has a mild lemon flavor, allowing the chicken to taste like, well, chicken.  Even though I love well flavored chicken dishes such as Herb Baked Chicken, there is something both elegant and favorable about a modestly seasoned roasted chicken.

Roasting a chicken is a pretty simple concept, but discussions about time and temperature get as heated as discussions about politics and religion.  Personally, I prefer a slow oven because it allows me more time to do other things while dinner is cooking, and I've never accidentally over-cooked it to the point of being dry.  In fact, slow roasting the chicken helps to keep it moist and tender and keeping it uncovered for the entire cooking time allows for perfectly golden skin with only one or two bastings.  I've found that the cooking  temperature is quite forgiving; it can be cooked at 250F for five hours, or 275F for four hours or 300F for three hours (approximately - it really does depend on the size of your chicken and what, if anything, you've stuffed it with), so depending on my schedule, I can choose a temperature to allow for how much time I need to get other things done.

When I make this recipe, I like to make two chickens; one to eat for dinner and one for sandwiches, soups, and other recipes later in the week.  I figure if the oven is on, I may as well take advantage of it.  I really dislike buying deli meat (nitrates, preservatives, price, the factory from which the animals came...), so I often will roast a turkey or a ham and freeze it in 1-2 lb portions to have on hand for sandwiches for those members of my family who like those things.  This chicken is great for that since I'm already making one and it's hardly any more work to pop in another.

This recipe calls for the lemons to be "zested".  By grating the yellow peel (not the white pith beneath the yellow peel - that part is bitter not at all tasty), the intense flavors of the oil are released and it makes a perfect seasoning. Since we are using the peel, I would strongly suggest buying organic lemons and just giving them a quick wash.  If you've never removed the zest from a citrus fruit before, it incredibly simple.  Get yourself a lemon and a hand-held cheese grater (the box type graters aren't the best for this, in my opinion, because the zest tends to get stuck in the little holes and I can't stand trying to clean it out).  Apply a little pressure and swipe the grater along the peel, trying not to go too deep and get any of the bitter white pith.  Continue over the peel of the entire lemon.  That's it.

To test whether the chicken is done cooking, I watch for the skin to begin shrinking slightly back at the bottom of the drumstick, test to see if the thigh is easily pulled away from the body of the chicken, and if that's so, the juices pooled there will be clear. If those things don't happen, the chicken is not done cooking. The FDA recommends a temperature of 180F for the dark meat (light meat will read 170F).  Keep in mind if you do use a thermometer that the chicken will continue cooking and rising about 10 more degrees during it's resting time after you remove it from the oven.

Slow Roasted Lemon Chicken

• 2 whole 4-5 lb chickens (preferably free range and organic), washed and patted dry inside and outside
• 8-10 sprigs fresh sage, roughly chopped, stems and all (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 8 garlic cloves
• 1 large onion, quartered
• 2 organic lemons, zested and quartered
• 4 tsp sea salt
• lemon zest (from above mentioned lemons)
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 2 Tbs olive oil

Preheat oven to 300F.

Place each chicken in its own roasting pan.  

In a small bowl, mix together the salt, lemon zest, paprika, and black pepper.  Rub 1/4 of the mixture inside the cavity of each chicken. Next, place half the sage and garlic cloves into each cavity, followed by 2 onion quarters, 4 lemon quarters for each chicken (it'll be a tight fit, but mash it all in there).  

Drizzle 1 Tbs olive oil over each chicken and rub around to coat.  Next,  divide the remaining zest and seasoning mixture evenly between both chickens and rub that around, too.

Tie the legs together (I use the abundance of twist ties I have lying around).

Each chicken should look like this:

Place the chickens, uncovered, into the oven.
After about 2 hours, use a large spoon and baste the chickens with the juices in the pan.  If you want to, you can baste it one more time before it's done, but it's probably not necessary.
Cook for about 3 hours, or until the chicken tests as done.  Remove from the oven and allow to rest about 15 minutes before cutting.