SIMPLE ROAST LEMON CHICKEN and VEGETABLES

by Beatrice Ojakangas in
Preparation Time: 20 minutesCooking Time: 1 hour

This simple, delicious recipe for Lemon-Roasted Chicken and Vegetables uses five ingredients, not counting the salt and pepper! Once roasted, cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice over the chicken.

Ingredients

  • One 4 to 5 pound farm-raised chicken
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 whole lemon, washed and dried
  • 2-3 tablespoons olive oil or melted butter
  • 3 or 4 thin-skinned potatoes, scrubbed and cut into quarters
  • 2 cups small carrots or 3 whole carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch lengths

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 450°F. Rinse the chicken, then dry it very well with paper towels, inside and out - the drier the chicken, the better.
  2. Salt and pepper the cavity, Stuff the cavity with the whole lemon - it will keep the shape of the chicken. Tie the legs together (use string or dental floss).
  3. Brush the chicken with olive oil or melted butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  4. Toss the potatoes and carrots with olive oil or melted butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper. (You can add other vegetables, too, if you have them - mushrooms are nice roasted or cherry tomatoes or diced eggplant, unpeeled of course.)
  5. Place the chicken on a rack in a roasting pan and surround it with the vegetables.
  6. Roast for 50 to 60 minutes or until a leg moves easily or the flesh tests 165°F.
  7. Remove the string from the legs and the lemon from inside the cavity. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice over the chicken and vegetables. Makes 4 servings.

Beatrice Ojakangas

Food writer Beatrice Ojakangas grew up as the oldest of ten on a farm in Floodwood, Minnesota and learned to cook and bake on a woodstove. Author of 31 cookbooks, Beatrice has a degree in home economics, has been inducted into the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame, was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Minnesota, has written for magazines such as Bon Appetit, Gourmet, and Woman's Day, and appeared on the television shows of both Julia Child and Martha Stewart. Her specialties include baking, Finnish and Scandinavian cooking, and writing well-tested, simple recipes that use wholesome ingredients. She lives in Duluth, Minnesota.