Lemony Peppery Roast Chicken

This chicken looks beautiful and tastes so delicate and straight forward you almost wonder if it’s in fact nostalgia that you are tasting. It follows the same cooking principles as my slow roasted spiced chicken, but this time with a brine to make sure it’s extra tangy. Make a whole chicken, eat half for dinner with your better half, then shred the rest for soup and salad throughout the week.

lemony peppery roast chicken

Lemony Peppery Roast Chicken 

Serves Four

For the Brine:

4 cups water

3/4 cup salt 

¼ cup sugar 

juice of three juicy lemons

2 TB peppercorns

2 bay leaves

Tray of ice cubes, about 18 ice cubes

For the Chicken:

1 3lb chicken, giblets removed, rinsed

½ onion, roughly chopped

4 cloves garlic, smashed

2 lemons, one quartered, one very thinly sliced

2 TB plus a splash olive oil 

2 TB kosher salt

3 TB fresh ground pepper

Kitchen twine 

Pour the water into a pot. Add in salt, sugar, lemon juice, peppercorns and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and add in ice cubes (you’re trying to bring the temp down here). Once brine is coolish pour into a large bowl and add your chicky. Leave it in there on the counter for minimum 3 hours, or in the fridge overnight. 

Preheat oven to 300. Remove the chicken from your brine and pat dry. Discard brine, he has done his job. Rub chicken with olive oil inside and out. Season the cavity of your chicken with a pinch of salt and pepper, then stuff it with the onion bits, smashed garlic and lemon quarters. Tie up the legs any way you know how to make sure nothing falls out. Season the outside of the chicken (both sides!) with remaining salt and pepper. Place chicken in a pyrex or equivalent baking dish. Carefully balance lemon slices all over the top of the chicken. Roast for three hours, basting (spooning pan juices over the chicken) every hour. Be warned: the first hour won’t be very juicy. After three hours, let the chicken rest for 10 minutes, carve and serve. 

Coupla notes:

·      Before you cut them, roll your lemons back and forth on the counter top, pressing down hard with your hand to make them more juicy.

·      If your lemon slices slide off don’t worry, just put them back on next time it comes out of the oven. As a general rule, the less you touch them the more they will hold on. 

·      Put any extra lemon slices you don’t use in the base of your roasting dish for more juices. 

·      Don’t garnish with herbs. It is tempting because it looks nice but this chicken is so simple, bright and lovely – extra flavors will mask what you have worked so hard on