Roasted Lemon Chicken

I made this chicken on my cooking day that I wrote about in a previous post. Everybody eats chicken because it's generally good and good for you, but we've all had a very dry and unappealing chicken every now and again. I reheated this chicken in the oven by putting it in a 350 oven for about 15 minutes after taking it straight from the freezer. I don't think cooking gets more simple than this! You can even throw in some roasted garlic if you'd like :)

What You'll Need:

1 whole roasting chicken
1 lemon
olive oil
kosher salt and black pepper

Split the chicken in half using a knife or a pair of kitchen shears so that you have two halves. Pat each half dry on the top (formerly the outside) and bottom (formerly the inside). Start with each half skin side down and drizzle with olive oil, then give it a good sprinkling of salt and pepper. Turn over and repeat on the skin side. Roll the lemon to release the juices, and if it's really unripe microwave it for about 10 seconds so you will get all the juice. Cut the lemon in half, using the juice from each half to pour over half of the chicken. Then cut each lemon half into slices. Stick a few slices under each half of chicken, and put the rest on top. Roast at 400 for about an hour and a half, depending on the size of your chicken. There are three ways to tell if your chicken is done, some more specific than others :)

1.A good rule of thumb is 20 minutes per pound, plus fifteen minutes.
2.Or you could use a thermometer to check for an internal temperature of 165 degrees in the upper thigh area, making sure not to touch the bone.
3.Or you could use a quick method of twisting the leg bone. If it twists freely and the juices run clear, the chicken is done; if there is some tension let it cook longer.

After the chicken is done, cover with a piece of foil to allow juices to redistribute before cutting. If you want to freeze it, let it cool completely and wrap each half separately in several layers of plastic wrap before using one layer to wrap them together as if the chicken were whole again. Then take the cooled juices from the pan, and double bag them in a Ziploc bag and freeze them along with your chicken. Thaw the juices in the microwave then pour over the chicken before heating to re-crisp the skin.