Sometimes, you just want roast chicken. Tender, warm, comforting roast chicken. This recipe is from How Easy Is That? the most recent cookbook from Ina Garten (aka the Barefoot Contessa). The chicken is stuffed with lemon and garlic and then placed in a small roasting pan with more lemon wedges and sliced onions. When the chicken is done, set it aside to rest and then add wine, stock and flour to the plan to make a luscious sauce that includes the cooked onions. My chicken was closer to 3 lbs. and took a little over an hour, so I expect a larger chicken would take longer than the 1 hour, 15 minutes cited in the recipe. I used only one onion and 1 ½ lemons.

Place chicken in small pan with onions and lemon wedges

Let the cooked chicken rest while you make the sauce

Add wine, stock and flour to the cooked onions and lemons

To avoid additives and preservatives in this recipe, use stock with no artificial ingredients and wine with no sulfites added.

Roast chicken with onion-lemon sauce

Ingredients:

1 (4-5 lb) roasting chicken

salt and freshly ground pepper

2 lemons, quartered

1 whole head of garlic, cut in half cross-wise olive oil

2 Spanish onions, peeling and thickly sliced

½ cup dry white wine

½ cup chicken stock

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Remove and discard the giblets. Rinse and pat the chicken dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Place two lemon quarters inside the cavity along with the garlic. Brush the chicken with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken.

Place the chicken in a small (11×14-inch) roasting pan. (If the pan is too big the onions will burn.) Place the reserved lemons and the sliced onions in a large bowl and toss with 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon of pepper. Pour the mixture around the chicken.

Roast the chicken for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and a thigh. Remove the chicken to a platter, leaving the lemons and onions in the pan. Cover the chicken with aluminum foil, and allow to rest for 10 minutes while you prepare the sauce.

Place the pan on top of the stove over medium-high heat. Add the wine and stir with a wooden spoon to scrape up the brown bits. Add the stocks and sprinkle on the flour, stirring constantly for a minute, until the sauce thickens. Add any juices that collect on the platter under the chicken and taste for seasoning. Carve the chicken onto the platter and spoon the onions and sauce over it. If the lemons are tender enough to eat, serve them, too. Sprinkle with salt and serve hot or warm.

From “How Easy Is That?” by Ina Garten