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OxfordPress.com

Lemon roast chicken

A Dayton expatriate who returned for a visit last week told me she and her daughter are still fixing Lemon Roast Chicken and think of me whenever they do. I printed the recipe from Marcella Hazan, the Italian cooking guru, after attending her cooking school in Bologna.

That recipe was in my 1980 cookbook It's Simple, a collection from the weekly column that began in 1978 and ran for 20 years. It may be the most popular recipe I ever printed.

Makes 4 servings

1 chicken, about 3 pounds

salt and pepper

2 whole lemons

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Wash the chicken, drain and dry it with paper towels. Remove any loose fat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper inside and out, rubbing it in.

Wash and dry the lemons and soften by rolling them on the counter. Poke each lemon at least 20 times with a skewer, ice pick or toothpick. Put the lemons inside the chicken. Close the opening with toothpicks or skewers and loosely tie the legs together.

Put in a shallow roasting pan, breast down, and place in the upper third of an oven preheated to 350 degrees. Do not add any fat.

After 20 minutes, turn chicken breasat side up and roast 20 to 25 minutes. Turn the heat to 400 degrees and cook chicken an additional 20 to 25 minutes. Cut into the thigh at the joint and make sure the juices run clear yellow.

Serve the chicken with a spoonful of the lemony juices in the roasting pan. They make a delicious sauce.