Roasted Chicken with Olives, Lemon and Garlic

So I will be the first to admit that this roast chicken recipe is more than a little labor-intensive.  It's definitely not a roast chicken recipe where you just throw the chicken into the pan and then forget about it for an hour.  Instead you have to flip the chicken a few times, reduce the heat, stir the onion-olive mixture, etc.  But I love me a good roast chicken and we hadn't made one in awhile, so I thought why not.  I had two recipes pulled to try (one by Ina Garten and this one by Susan Spicer) and the Spicer recipe won out because it didn't involve 4 plus hours of marinating time and spatchcocking a chicken.  Although I think if we had read both recipes fully we would have realized that in the end the Susan Spicer recipe was actually more labor-intensive than the other recipe.  But hey, there's nothing wrong with a labor of love.  And I love roast chicken so I'm willing to work at it a bit.

The biggest endorsement I can give of this dish is that Alex couldn't stop eating it.  Every time I turned around, he was eating more sourdough dipped in the chicken jus, or the onions that roasted alongside the chicken.  I think that he polished off the better part of a red onion and just under half of a very large loaf of sourdough all on his own.  And that was on top of the arugula salad and the chicken breast he ate.  He ate.  And ate.  And then ate some more.  Then he stated that roast chicken with arugula salad and some fresh bread is one of his favorite meals.  Yeah it the chicken takes a little effort to prepare, but it is well worth it.  The chicken breasts were flavorful and juicy.  Alex is going to eat the legs tomorrow for lunch so I can't attest to how they tasted, but I bet they were delicious as well.  And then there was the mix of onions, olives, lemon quarters, and garlic that we roasted underneath the chicken.  The onions were sweet and yet savory and totally flavorful.  Then there were the olives, which provided you with bursts of saltiness in every bite.  You can definitely taste the lemons - both in the chicken itself, and in the chicken jus underneath.  It's such a nice combination of flavors.

Recipe after the jump!

Roasted Chicken with Olives, Lemon and Garlic

Crescent City Cooking: Unforgettable Recipes from Susan Spicer's New Orleans

By Susan Spicer

INGREDIENTS:

1 chicken (2 1/2 to 3 lbs)

2 lemons, zested and quartered

12-15 garlic cloves, crushed and peeled

3 tbsp olive oil

s&p

crushed red pepper flakes

6-8 sprigs rosemary (strip half the sprigs of their leaves and chop coarsely)

1 medium onion, peeled and cut into 8 wedges

1 cup pitted kalamata or picholine olives, or a combination of both

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.  Place a 13x9-inch roasting pan in the oven.

Rinse the chicken and use paper towels to pat it try, inside and out.  Squeeze 1 of the lemon quarters over the skin and rub the juice around with your fingers.  Using your fingers to gently separate the skin from the breast, place a couple of the garlic cloves and some of the lemon zest under the skin of the breast on each side.  Let it sit about 10 minutes, then pat the bird dry again, rub the skin with 2 tbsp olive oil, and season with s&p, red pepper, and some of the chopped rosemary.  Make an incision into the inside of each thigh and insert a garlic clove.  Place 3 of the garlic cloves in the cavity, along with the rosemary sprigs and 2 of the lemon quarters.

You may tie the legs together over the cavity, if you like.  Place the chicken breast side up in the preheated roasting pan.  Bake for about 30 minutes, watching to make sure the chicken starts to brown.  Carefully loosen the chicken from the pan with a spatula and turn it over to brown the underside.

At this point, lower the oven heat to 400 degrees F.  Add the remaining tbsp olive oil to the pan, then scatter the onion, olives, remaining garlic, lemon quarters and zest, and chopped rosemary around the chicken and cook for about 15 minutes.  Turn the chicken over again and stir the onions, olives and garlic around a little.  Cook another 10-15 minutes to re-crisp the skin.

When the chicken is a deep golden brown, remove it from the oven and let it sit for about 5 minutes.  Transfer the chicken to a plate and collect any juices that drain.  Tilt the roasting pan and spoon off the fat, if desired.  Stir the olives, onion, and lemon around, pressing on the lemon a little to extract the juice.  Add the chicken juices to the pan and scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the pan to incorporate them into the mixture.  Spoon the juicy olive-onion  mixture around the chicken and serve.