Lemon & Rosemary Roast Chicken

I would assume this is still a staple in some households but I can not remember cooking it as an adult, ever. Not for any particular reason, as I love roast chicken and I love roasted vegetables but we grew up eating this, I want to say, every Sunday night.  Absolutely a staple in our house and it brings back wonderful memories. As I grew older and tall enough to stand by the stove, I was in charge of stirring the gravy, making sure I scrapped all the crusty 'good' bits off the bottom of the pan.  In the meantime there was always a lot of chaos going on behind me, as plates were being pulled out of the oven, vegetables were being served from the hot oven while others came steamed from the microwave. Dad always carefully carving up the chicken and providing everyone with their choice of white or dark meat, under the watchful eye of my brother - controlling portion size. This culinary dance in our relatively small kitchen was almost always followed by a blueberry pie being replaced in the oven. We couldn't devour our meal quick enough in anticipation of eating that hot pie with vanilla icecream.  

These days however, I married a guy who doesn't eat cooked fruit and so pie is all but a distant memory. What I wouldn't do for a Sunday night hot apple pie or blueberry pie or apple and rhubarb pie....hmmmm, that might be my next mission....get my children addicted to pie so he's out numbered!

Well, I thought it was just going to be me and the girls this evening so I wanted something relatively simple.  I grabbed a small chook from the local grocery store, threw it into a large ziploc bag with some garlic grapeseed oil, fresh rosemary, oregano, a good squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkle of onion and garlic powder and gave it a good rub with salt and pepper. I let it absorb for a little while and then placed it on a rack over a baking tray, put half a lemon and two broken sticks of celery up the cavity and placed it into a hot oven for about 1 hr, 15mins. 

The aromas were delightful and the chicken was so moist and delicious, I was impressed that a simple roast chook could be as rewarding as this.  I didn't have anyone tall enough to help with the gravy and I didn't bother with roasting seven different types of vegetables like my parents used to but it was still a lovely trip down memory lane.  Chicken has never tasted so good.  As it turned out, my husband was home for dinner and he LOVED it.  Maybe it will return to our rotation as well in the near future.

Apologizes for my photograph, I'm going to have to do this one again very shortly and update.  I wasn't really prepared for this to be blog worthy so I forgot to cross the poor chooks legs!  Here she is in all her glory, but you can see for yourself how delicious she looks! :)

Ingredients:

Whole chicken

oil, garlic grapeseed or EVOO

salt and pepper

juice of half lemon, and other half as wedges for cavity

rosemary and oregano

onion powder

garlic powder

celery, 2 sticks inside the cavity

Method:

• Put all these ingredients into a large ziploc bag and allow flavors to marinade the chicken for up to 3hrs
• When ready to bake, preheat oven to 425'F place chicken on a baking tray and cook for approx 1hr 15min.
• I turned the oven down to 375'F after about 45mins, for the remainder of the cooking time 
• Serve with gravy, roasted or steamed vegetables and definitely follow up with APPLE PIE!