We've Been Married Awhile Now Chicken.

So our CSA started this week - we did Fresh Fork Market again - and the first big thing we received was a whole, pasture raised chicken:

I knew right away I wanted to roast it.  May as well since we're just sitting here waiting on a baby.  And since we're still waiting I figured I'd share my fav. roast chicken recipe with you guys.  It evolved from this recipe for "Engagement Chicken"  The legend is that if you make it your guy will propose - something that I find kindof hilarious.  And also a bit disturbing.  I mean if you have to make chicken to get him to propose.... but who am I to judge?  I have a husband who will freely admit he married an Italian so he can eat well for the rest of his life so.... yeah.

Anyways!

The recipe is just simple lemon and chicken.  Which, while tasty... well....  We've been married for 8 and a half years now.  We have (almost) 3 kids.  It takes more than a little lemon to impress us anymore.  So I punched up the recipe a bit and this is the result:

We've Been Married Awhile Now Chicken.

Ingredients:

Whole Roasting Chicken
Fresh Sage
5 or 6 whole lemons
1 or 2 onions
3 or 4 cloves of garlic
Seasoning for Chicken (I use the Giant Eagle grinder one - delicious!)

1.)  Preheat oven to 325.  Remove giblets from chicken.  Rinse out chicken and then let drain cavity side down for a few minutes while you chop up the rest of the stuff.

2.)  Coarsely chop your sage (I used about a quarter of what's pictured above).  Chop onions into quarters, peel garlic cloves.  Chop lemons into quarters (or not.  more on that in the next step...)

3.)  Stuff chicken cavity with lemons, onion, garlic cloves, and sage.  The original recipe calls for the lemons to be pricked with forks and then stuck in there whole.  I like a much more lemony chicken.  So I put them in there cut into quarters.  It ends up very flavorful this way - YUM. But it's all personal preference. Stuff any places where the skin is coming up with sage and/or garlic.

4.)  Squeeze lemon juice over the entire chicken - top to bottom.  Really douse it.  Then grind spices over every surface you can.

5.)  Place prepared bird in a roasting pan (or a ghetto roasting pan made with a cookie rack and a cookie sheet if you're awesome like me).

6.)  Stuff sage and garlic into any opening or crevice you can - under the wings, behind the legs, etc.

7.)  Roast chicken breast side down for 15 min.  Then flip the bird breast side up and roast for approximately 20 min per pound.  The cooking part always takes longer than I think it will so plan for extra time - 15 min or so.  Roast until the juices run clear when the thigh is pierced (or use a meat thermometer to tell you when it's done)

8.)  Let the chicken rest for 10 min or so before carving.  Wait for a proposal.  Or just be happy that you can still impress your significant other with your mad culinary skills well past the honeymoon phase.

YUM!

I served it with steamed CSA broccoli (simple) and Smashed Potatoes.  Those are potatoes that I quarter, cover in water, and boil until they are easily pierced with a fork.  Then I drain them and smash them up with milk, butter, salt, and fresh herbs.  This time I used chopped sage so they'd match the flavors in the chicken.  DELICIOUS.  They are also good with fresh dill, shredded cheese, whatever you have on hand.