Melissa's Mr.Chicken (Roast Chicken stuffed w/ Lemons, Onions & Herbs)

Categories: Chicken/Poultry
Contributed by: Jacqueline&David's friend Melissa~~adapted from Shirley O. Corriher's Cookwise

Be forewarned: With the high heat, any fat that spatters onto the side of the roasting pan is a major pain to remove. It will not come off in the dishwasher—it takes some major elbow grease. The bottom of the pan stays OK, because it never really dries. So, you can wrap the sides of the pan in foil to protect it. Depending on who you talk to, it’s a bad or OK idea to have your food touch aluminum foil, so it’s your call as to whether you put any on the bottom of the pan (certainly much easier than trying to just wrap the sides.) [Jacqueline adds: Definitely wrap the sides of the pan for ease!] [Jacq notes: Total roasting time is 50-60 minutes]

INGREDIENTS

3-4 lb chicken (enough for 2 w/ leftovers)
rosemary or sage, your choice (both fresh)
1-2 onion quarters
as many lemon quarters as will fit in cavity
optional: potatoes, cubed [Jacq adds: these taste great!]
optional: 1/2 cup chicken broth (reduced sodium preferred) or water
salt & pepper

DIRECTIONS

Let chicken sit out at room temp an hr before roasting it. (It's safe as it's being fully cooked.) Put your oven rack slightly lower than center and preheat to 500F. [Jacq adds, yes, 500!]

Take the giblety stuff out of the bird and rinse it inside and out w/ water and pat dry w/ paper towels. Salt and pepper the bird and put in which ever herb you want. Stuff in the quartered onion and as many lemon quarters as you can inside the cavity. If you are using potatoes, scatter the potatoes around the chicken and sprinkle w/ salt and pepper. Place the bird on a small heavy roasting pan breast side up. Put it in the oven legs first. You will probably need to loosen it about 5-10 min after it's been in in case it is sticking.

Roast another 40-50 minutes longer, then put bird on serving dish. (If you have added potatoes, you'll probably need to remove them for this next step, if you want to do this next step at all:

If you can/want to, spoon out much of the fat from the drippings and throw fat away. Add about 1/2 cup water or chicken broth to the pan and put it on the stovetop on medium heat. Scrape up the bits from the bottom of the roasting pan to get up all their goodness. Boil it until it's down to about 1/3 C left. Use this as a sauce over the chicken.