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's 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." Nigella Lawson

She's right. I made this dinner for the first time a few years ago and it's the only recipe among my stacks, binders, and folders full of recipes that I've left alone. No need for an adaptation. It's simple and incredibly delicious.

We have two weeks until the girls go back to school so I don't really want to be in the kitchen too much. Well, I do, because I always have dozens of new recipe ideas whizzing around in my head, but for the next two weeks I really want to enjoy the kids and the slower summer pace.

Today when I made this recipe, I also tossed some thick slices of zucchini with olive oil, salt and pepper, covered it with foil, and put it in the oven at the same time I put the chicken in. The zucchini cooked beautifully and when my husband walked through the door, I had dinner ready, and I hadn't been in the kitchen for hours.


Slow Roasted Garlic and Lemon Chicken
Recipe from "Forever Summer" by Nigella Lawson
Serves 4

1 3-4 pound chicken, butterflied
1 head garlic, separated into unpeeled cloves
2 organic lemons, cut into eighths
5 sprigs fresh thyme
3 tablespoons olive oil
Sea salt and black pepper
1/2 cup white wine

Preheat oven to 300°F and adjust oven to middle position. Place chicken skin-side up in a large roasting pan and arrange garlic cloves and lemon around the chicken. Pull the leaves off of 3 sprigs of thyme and sprinkle over chicken, garlic and lemon. Pour the oil over the chicken and using your hands, rub the oil onto the skin of the chicken. Season chicken generously with salt and pepper. Pour white wine in pan, around the chicken. Place a piece of parchment paper over the pan and then cover tightly with foil. Place in the oven and cook for 2 hours. Remove the foil and parchment paper from the pan, and turn up the oven to 400°F. Cook the uncovered chicken for an additional 30-45 minutes, until skin is golden brown and breast registers 170°F on a thermometer. Remove chicken from oven and let rest for 20 minutes before serving.