Ina Garten's Lemon and Garlic Roasted Chicken

I invited Susan and Aleen over for dinner one night and made roasted chicken with some sides.  I had been eating out a lot and just wanted a home cooked meal.  It's too bad I didn't anticipate that it would take about 2 hours including prep time to make this so we didn't get to enjoy this till close to 10 pm.  Oops!  I will remember to get an earlier start next time.   Here's a preview of our late night meal.

Lemon and Garlic Roasted Chicken

Ina Garten

Ingredients

1 (5 to 6-pound) roasting chicken

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 large bunch fresh thyme

3 to 4 lemons

3 heads garlic, cut in 1/2 crosswise

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 pound sliced bacon

1 cup white wine

1/2 cup chicken stock

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pinfeathers and pat the outside dry. Place the chicken in a large roasting pan. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the thyme, reserving enough thyme to garnish the chicken dish, 1 lemon, halved, and 2 halves of the garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Cut 2 of the lemons in quarters and scatter the quarters and remaining garlic around the chicken. Lay the bacon slices over the chicken to cover and put in the oven.

Roast the chicken for 1 hour. Remove the bacon slices from the top of the chicken and set aside.  We were so hungry at this point so we ate the bacon.  lol.

Continue roasting the chicken for an additional 1/2 hour, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove to a platter and cover with aluminum foil while you prepare the gravy.

Remove all but 2 tablespoons of the fat from the bottom of the pan. Add the wine and chicken stock and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat, and simmer for 5 minutes, or until reduced by half.  (I made the mistake of squeezing the lemon) and it added a bitter taste to the gravy, so I would just toss the roasted lemon pieces.

You can garnish the chicken platter with bacon slices (which we already devoured), roasted garlic, reserved thyme and 1 sliced lemon and serve it with gravy.  We didn't even bother with the presentation, we just dove right in.  

The chicken was really moist and tasty.  Aside from just having to wait patiently for the chicken to roast, it was super easy to make.

Thanks Ina, this is definitely going to be part of my Sunday Supper repertoire from now on.  Who wants to come over?  As soon as we get our couch, I'm hosting Sunday Supper at Soomeenshee & Susan's.