Lemon and Herb Whole Chicken

As a family of 2, we really cannot eat "family-sized" recipes. Regardless, I rarely cut down on the size of meal, because my husband enjoys bringing the leftovers to work that week. It really saves us a lot on money. Scaling back recipes usually causes more waste in the ingredients (i.e. not all the cilantro or lettuce were used). I know some people are not as fortunate to enjoy leftovers, but I'm grateful that my husband not only brings them to work, but even returns home saying his lunch was yummy :)

Last night, I chose to do a whole chicken in the oven. This meal was designed so that we could have dinner one night, leftovers for lunch, and I could use the rest of the chicken in a meal later on this week. Chickens were $0.75/pound at Stater Brothers last week so I really could not turn down that offer :)

Of course, the day I picked to make the chicken, it happened to be 90 degrees outside. With a non-working a/c, this was poor planning on my part. But, my husband- the engineer- devised a way that I could cook in the oven for hours at a time w/o heating the apartment to a sauna. In fact, I think it only increased the overall temp by 3-4 degrees. We own 2 box fans. In summer time, we run the box fans in our windows at night. I'm in charge of turning them off in the morning when the temperature outside rises. This keeps the apt cool for the majority of the day as long as it isn't 95+ outside. Well, fast forward to me cooking dinner in the oven at 375 for almost 2 hours and you will see how useful it is owning a box fan! I set up the fan to blow all the hot air from our oven out through a small window in the kitchen that I cracked open. This really helps remove the hot air from the kitchen w/o roasting me on the other side.

Also, needing its introduction into the blog is my dutch oven. I love this little guy. He was a Christmas gift from my mother-in-law. It's a great kitchen accessory. I literally only had to season my chicken, truss the legs, and then toss it in my dutch oven to cook w/ a roasting thermometer. I only checked the chicken after 1 hour and 45 minutes and it was already done! The dutch oven is a cast iron pot that can be used on the stove and the oven. It's usually used to prepare French dishes (which I have only done 2 since getting this guy at xmas!), but I have found that it cooks a chicken quickly and throughly.

Quick link to the dutch oven:  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000N4WN08/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=httpyumyumsfo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000N4WN08

Wow, what an introduction. Now to the actual meat of blog (no pun intended). I made this lemon and herb chicken and it came out super moist! The meat was falling off the bone and delicious.

INGREDIENTS:
1 whole chicken (I used a 5.11 lb roasting chicken)
1/2 fresh lemon
4-5 shallots
1.5 tbsp salt
2 tbsp Mrs. Dash (or any other flavored seasoning you love: thyme, rosemary, black pepper...)

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Wash chicken throughly removing any giblets from body cavity.
3. Place chicken on clean surface and rub chicken with the juice of 1/2 of a lemon. Season chicken with salt and Mrs. Dash (don't forget to add a little to the inside!).
4. Chop shallots and place in cavity of chicken with used lemon wedge.
5. Truss chicken* and put the chicken with its wings tucked under its body in the dutch oven, add a roasting thermometer, and cover.
     a. Take chicken legs and wrap twine around one leg.
     b. Pull the two legs together and wrap the other leg in twine.
     c. Tie twine together in a knot, so that legs are close to the body of chicken and the stuffing of the chicken is contained in the body cavity.
6. Check chicken after about 1.5 hours. Chicken should be 170-175 in internal temp and should not contain any blood when cut.

All done! Bon Appetit!

* I'm lazy when I truss a chicken. Sometimes I see diagrams of chickens with zig-zags of strings to hold the wings and the legs together, but I found it is easier just to tuck the wings under the body to keep it cooking at about the same temperature and then trussing the two hind legs together. It was a method Julia Child used and one I will continue to practice because it makes life that much easier!