(no subject)
So tonight I made the Nigella recipe I posted about a week ago...
Slow-Roasted Garlic and Lemon Chicken
This is one of those recipes you just can't make once: That's to say, after the first time, you're hooked. It is gloriously easy: You just put everything in the roasting dish and leave it to cook in the oven, pervading the house, at any time of year, with the summer scent of lemon and thyme -- and of course, mellow, almost honeyed garlic.
I got the idea of it from those long-cooked French chicken casseroles with whole garlic cloves and just wanted to spritz it up with lemon for summer. The wonderful thing about it is that you turn the lemon from being a flavoring to being a major player; left in chunks to cook slowly in the oven they seem almost to caramelize and you can eat them, skin, pith and all, their sour bitterness sweetened in the heat.
1 chicken (approx. 3 and a half to 4 pounds), cut into 10 pieces
1 head garlic, separated into unpeeled cloves (next time I will peel them - I didn't think the chicken was 'garlick-y' enough)
2 unwaxed lemons, cut into chunky eighths
Small handful fresh thyme
3 tablespoons olive oil
10 tablespoons white wine (about 2/3 cup)
Black pepper
Recipe didn't call for salt - I added a a little, and next time will add more
Pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees.
Put the chicken pieces into a roasting pan and add the garlic cloves, lemon chunks and the thyme; just roughly pull the leaves off the stalks, leaving some intact for strewing over later. Add the oil and using your hands mix everything together, then spread the mixture out, making sure all the chicken pieces are skin side up.
Sprinkle over the white wine and grind on some pepper, then cover tightly with foil and put in the oven to cook, at flavour-intensifyingly low heat, for 2 hours.
Remove the foil from the roasting pan, and turn up the oven to 400 degrees. Cook the uncovered chicken for another 30-45 minutes, by which time the skin on the meat will have turned golden brown and the lemons will have begun to scorch and caramelize at the edges.
I like to serve this as it is, straight from the roasting pan: So just strew with your remaining thyme and dole out.
Serves 4-6
It was good. The first time I make a dish, I try to make it as close to the actual recipe as I can. From there I know what to adjust/omit/add for the next time I make it. A bottle of white wine would just go to waste here, but I didn't want to leave it out (and I am glad I didn't, I think the flavor it added was crucial to the dish). Happily, we found cute little 1-serving bottles at the liquor store. Under $2, including tax:
Here's the chicken, fresh out of the oven:
For a side dish, I made roasted cauliflower. Man, was that good! Just tossed it with olive oil, salt, and pepper. I got this recipe from a messageboard I frequent - the person who posted it says she roasts them until dark and crispy and eats them as a snack. I didn't let them get 'too' done, but it would be good that way, I am sure. It was delicious. If you make them, a little salt goes a long way. A half teaspoon would be sufficient, I think.
Good dinner. Hit the spot. I needed that!
Slow-Roasted Garlic and Lemon Chicken
This is one of those recipes you just can't make once: That's to say, after the first time, you're hooked. It is gloriously easy: You just put everything in the roasting dish and leave it to cook in the oven, pervading the house, at any time of year, with the summer scent of lemon and thyme -- and of course, mellow, almost honeyed garlic.
I got the idea of it from those long-cooked French chicken casseroles with whole garlic cloves and just wanted to spritz it up with lemon for summer. The wonderful thing about it is that you turn the lemon from being a flavoring to being a major player; left in chunks to cook slowly in the oven they seem almost to caramelize and you can eat them, skin, pith and all, their sour bitterness sweetened in the heat.
1 chicken (approx. 3 and a half to 4 pounds), cut into 10 pieces
1 head garlic, separated into unpeeled cloves (next time I will peel them - I didn't think the chicken was 'garlick-y' enough)
2 unwaxed lemons, cut into chunky eighths
Small handful fresh thyme
3 tablespoons olive oil
10 tablespoons white wine (about 2/3 cup)
Black pepper
Recipe didn't call for salt - I added a a little, and next time will add more
Pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees.
Put the chicken pieces into a roasting pan and add the garlic cloves, lemon chunks and the thyme; just roughly pull the leaves off the stalks, leaving some intact for strewing over later. Add the oil and using your hands mix everything together, then spread the mixture out, making sure all the chicken pieces are skin side up.
Sprinkle over the white wine and grind on some pepper, then cover tightly with foil and put in the oven to cook, at flavour-intensifyingly low heat, for 2 hours.
Remove the foil from the roasting pan, and turn up the oven to 400 degrees. Cook the uncovered chicken for another 30-45 minutes, by which time the skin on the meat will have turned golden brown and the lemons will have begun to scorch and caramelize at the edges.
I like to serve this as it is, straight from the roasting pan: So just strew with your remaining thyme and dole out.
Serves 4-6
It was good. The first time I make a dish, I try to make it as close to the actual recipe as I can. From there I know what to adjust/omit/add for the next time I make it. A bottle of white wine would just go to waste here, but I didn't want to leave it out (and I am glad I didn't, I think the flavor it added was crucial to the dish). Happily, we found cute little 1-serving bottles at the liquor store. Under $2, including tax:
Here's the chicken, fresh out of the oven:
For a side dish, I made roasted cauliflower. Man, was that good! Just tossed it with olive oil, salt, and pepper. I got this recipe from a messageboard I frequent - the person who posted it says she roasts them until dark and crispy and eats them as a snack. I didn't let them get 'too' done, but it would be good that way, I am sure. It was delicious. If you make them, a little salt goes a long way. A half teaspoon would be sufficient, I think.
Good dinner. Hit the spot. I needed that!