Holiday Chicken

Happy 4th, my fellow Americans!

I bring you a delicious and simple chicken recipe, which is what I made for the fam tonight. It's awesome.

I don't remember where I got the original recipe (sorry!), but I'm pretty sure it was from some magazine. Yeah, that really helps, doesn't it?

Anyway, enjoy!

Lemon and Pepper Chicken

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken
5 medium-to-large lemons
1 Tbs olive oil or room temperature butter
kosher or sea salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400F. Pull the giblets out of your chicken (poor chicken!) and feed to the dog. Wash your naked, empty chicken inside and out with cold water, then let it drain, butt-side down, in a colander or similar thingie.

2. While you're waiting for your naked, empty chicken to finish draining and warm up to room temperature, juice three of your lemons.

3. Pour lemon juice all over your chicken, inside and out. Give it a lovely little lemon juice bath! It deserves some TLC before you pop it in the oven. Follow the lemon juice bath with a lovely moisturizing massage with the butter or olive oil (outside only; the chicken doesn't need any inside).

4. Salt and pepper all over the place, top and bottom. Fork your two remaining lemons (by which I mean stab your two remaining lemons with a fork), then stuff them inside the chicken's inside.

5. Put the lemon-stuffed birdie in a roasting pan (boob-side down), lower the oven's temp to 350F, and bake your bird--uncovered--for 15-20 minutes.

6. Remove from the oven, flip the chicken (use wooden spoons or tongs or something like that), and put it back in the oven for another 35-40 minutes, after which time you should check it for doneness. If it's still not ready (fussy chicken!), bake it until it is.

7. Let your poor, hardworking chicken rest for a few minutes (it's totally earned it by this point!) before carving it and serving it with some lovely veggies and potatoes. Nom nom nom, my friends! Nom nom nom.