Garlic Roast Chicken

It will pain my stepdaughter to read this but my great Food TV love is Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa. Sure she lives in the Hamptons and says things like, "use a teaspoon good vanilla" as though we would try to sneak in that woodpulp when she wasn't looking. Many of her recipes are straight forward and just plain tasty like this one for a garlic roast chicken. It's a favorite at our house, and I've stolen it straight off the foodtv.com website. -- ML


GARLIC ROAST CHICKEN
1 (5 to 6-pound) roasting chicken
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 heads garlic, cut in 1/2 crosswise
1 lemon, halved
1/2 large Spanish onion, thickly sliced
4 carrots cut diagonally into 2-inch chunks
2 large Yukon gold potatoes, cut into 6 pieces
4 tablespoons butter, melted


As soon as you get the chicken home, salt it inside and out, wrap it and keep it in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. (Oh, please, Ina, apparently you aren't trying to keep a toddler out of the yogurt as you put the groceries away.)

When you are ready to cook the chicken, first preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Pat the outside of the chicken dry with paper towels. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken and stuff the cavity with the all the garlic and lemon. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Place it in a roasting pan just large enough to hold it and the vegetables. Scatter the onion slices, carrots and potatoes around the chicken. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove the chicken to a platter and cover with aluminum foil. Place the vegetables back in the oven and continue cooking for an additional 15minutes.

When the vegetables are cooked, carve the chicken and place the slices on the platter surrounded by the vegetables. (Or slap it on plates and yell, "Get your butt to the table now!! I'm not going to yell again!!) Drizzle some pan juices over the chicken and vegetables.