Baked Chicken Recipes
Lemon-Garlic Roasted Chicken
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
- 2 lemons
- 2 to 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- 1 (6 to 7 pound) roasting chicken
- Several sprigs fresh thyme or rosemary
Instructions
- Heat oven to 425 degrees F.
- Zest one lemon and chop strips into tiny bits.
- Place in small bowl.
- Juice the zested lemon and add to zest, along with garlic and olive oil. Mix well, and add salt and pepper to taste.
- Pat chicken dry. Sprinkle salt and pepper on surface of chicken and in cavity.
- Place on roasting rack set in roasting pan.
- Starting at cavity end, loosen skin of chicken along breast, legs and back, being careful not to tear the skin.
- With your fingers, rub some of the lemon-garlic mixture between the skin and meat, coating as thoroughly as possible.
- Rub the remaining lemon-garlic mixture on the outside of the chicken and inside the cavity.
- Cut the second lemon in half and place in cavity of the bird, along with the sprigs of thyme or rosemary.
- Tie the drumsticks together with twine and tuck wing tips under breast.
- Roast in oven for about 75 minutes, basting with drippings once or twice, until a thermometer inserted well into thigh meat registers 170 degrees F (be careful not to let thermometer touch the bone).
- Remove chicken from oven and let rest for 15 minutes before carving.