A Meal for All Seasons: Roast Chicken With Rosemary & Lemon
Many of us who have been the primary-meal-server (PMS) in our households for decades have found that personal cooking styles progress in seasons. A typical pattern can be:
Newlywed: Hauls out a cooking encyclopedia for anything more complicated than boiling an egg, and sometimes even for boiling an egg. Lots of experimentation, accompanied by irreversibly scorched pots and even tears. Outstanding successes mean those dishes will be served often — very, very often. Wine may appear on the table, even when it’s not Shabbat.
New parent: While the baby is waking for feedings every 2 hours — and each feeding lasts for 1 hour and 55 minutes — a cheese sandwich grilled in a toaster oven constitutes a main meal for the day. As the baby becomes more civilized, interest in food preparation blossoms again, accompanied by a greatly expanded skill set and ravenous appetite.
Parent of multiple small children: Having tossed far too many untouched portions of Caesar Salad or gazpacho, PMS becomes resigned to dishing out an eternal cycle of hamburgers, noodles with catsup, and pizza.
Career fixation: Even hamburgers can seem too much trouble after a long workday. Defrosting frozen food and buying takeout is considered “cooking”, except for special occasions. And even for special occasions PMS may simply upgrade the quality of takeaway. We may occasionally try to compensate by reviving an old favorite recipe, only to find that we’ve forgotten practical details of the arcane procedures for successful preparation — like how to turn on the oven.
Retirement: With leisure time to rediscover favorite hobbies, cookbook collections mushroom, and kitchen time becomes innovative, producing delicious, gorgeous works of culinary genius. The phone is constantly tied up by friends begging for dinner invitations — or at least recipes. (Is this too far-fetched a fantasy? Is the reality of this period characterized by eating a 5 PM dinner of boiled chicken and applesauce? If so, please don’t tell me!)
Not too many recipes can span all these periods, but roasted chicken is one that does so with aplomb. Preparation is fast and easy, but the results are succulent with an amazing aroma. Dry-air roasting keeps all the juices inside the chicken where they belong, producing very moist, tender meat. The skin is crisp and glistening, as are the cut sides of the potatoes. And the garlic becomes mellow and sweet, perfect when squeezed onto the chicken or thick slices of fresh, crusty bread.
Tips: This method relies on allowing air to circulate on all sides of the chicken, so use a rack that prevents the chicken from resting directly on the pan. If you don’t have a rack, place the chickens on a thick layer of coarse koshering salt. Use heavy oven mitts to turn the chicken, rather than implements that can puncture the skin and release the juices.
Roast Chicken with Rosemary and Lemon
2 whole chickens, preferably fresh
3 heads of garlic
8-10 small potatoes
2 lemons
Fresh rosemary
Olive oil
Salt
Coarsely ground black pepper
Clean the chickens thoroughly and pat dry, inside and out. Rub surface with olive oil, pepper, and a bit of salt. Insert a quartered lemon and 2 inch sprig of rosemary into the cavity of each chicken. Place chickens, breast side down, on a roasting rack.
Slice off the top portion of the unpeeled garlic heads and drizzle the exposed cloves with olive oil. Place below, but not touching, the chickens.
Wash the potatoes and slice in half. Do not peel. Arrange cut side down in the baking pan around and below the chickens.
Roast uncovered in a hot oven for 40 minutes. Turn the chickens over, return to the oven, and continue roasting for approximately 40 minutes more, or until the skin is browned and crisp and juices run clear.
Remove from the oven and let stand for 5 minutes before cutting and serving.