Roast chicken is my culinary pièce de résistance.  The mouthwatering aroma that fills every room in the house, the anticipation of waiting two hours for it to finish, the delectably juicy first bite…  It is fair to say that if I had the time to roast a chicken every single day, I would.  It’s that good.

When I was initially approached to start Table + Teaspoon, roast lemon chicken with croutons was the first blog-worthy recipe that came to mind.  The juices from the ambrosial lemons and caramelized onions infuse the croutons with deliciously rich flavor – making this one of my all-time favorites.  Mysteriously, roast chicken is the recipe that I always recommend to friends, and also the recipe that they find hardest to make.  I blame this difficulty on overly ambitious recipes with poorly written instructions.  Roasting a chicken is extremely easy, and takes very little prep time (less than twenty minutes).  Once the chicken is in the oven, you are free to do whatever you please for two hours!  What could be simpler than that?

I truly believe that everyone should know how to make this chicken.  I don’t know if this qualifies as a proper “engagement chicken.”  But if you make it for me, I just might marry you. xx tt

Recipe – adapted from Barefoot Contessa

Ingredients

• 5-pound roasting chicken

• 2 large yellow onions

• Olive Oil

• Kosher Salt

• Pepper

• 2 lemons

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter

• ½ cup dry white wine

• 1 baguette

• Optional: 1 pd dutch baby potatoes

Instructions

• Heat the oven to 425 degrees

• Cut onions in half, then slice

• Toss onions in wine and two tablespoons of olive oil in the roasting pan (optional: add baby potatoes)

• Quarter the lemons

• Combine two tablespoons kosher salt and two tablespoons pepper in a ramekin

• Melt butter in the microwave

• Take the giblets out of the chicken and discard

• Rinse the chicken inside and out

• Pluck any pinfeathers you find

• Pat chicken dry with paper towels – prevents chicken from steaming rather than baking

• Sprinkle inside of chicken with a third of the salt/pepper mixture

• Add lemons to the inside of the chicken

• Place the chicken on top of the onions in the roasting pan

• Brush the chicken with the melted butter

• Sprinkle the rest of the salt/pepper mixture all over the chicken and onions

• If you have kitchen string – tie the legs together (if not, it won’t make much difference)

• Tuck the wing tips underneath the body of the chicken

• Put in the oven and roast for 2 hours – or until the thickest part of the chicken reaches 180 degrees

• Meanwhile, cut your baguette into croutons size pieces (I left mine a bit larger, you could cut them in half so that they are bite-sized)

• Place the bread pieces on a baking sheet

• Combine two tablespoons olive oil with two teaspoons salt and two teaspoons pepper in a ramekin

• Brush each bread piece very lightly with the olive oil mixture (or use a teaspoon to drizzle)

• When the chicken comes out of the oven, cover it with aluminum foil for 15 minutes (the onions will likely look burned, but they taste AMAZING)

• Set the oven to BROIL and put the croutons in for about three minutes – keep an eye on them, they burn extremely quickly

• Take the croutons out once they are sufficiently browned, and flip them over

• Return the croutons to the oven and broil the other side until finished

• Move croutons to a platter, and place slices of the chicken and caramelized onions on top

• Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then serve!