GREEK OREGANO & LEMON ROASTED CHICKEN

GREEK OREGANO & LEMON ROASTED CHICKEN

By Patsy R. Brumfield

The Southfacin’ Cook

The Pandemic has brought me to more cooking shows on TV, especially how-to shows like Cook’s Country and America’s Test Kitchen. One episode showed a tantalizing entrée of chicken parts marinaded in a spicy blend of garlic, lemon and Greek oregano. So, I ordered a quantity of the oregano, which is somewhat more flavorful than regular oregano. Back from my trip to Brazil, and serving my time in quarantine, I bought a whole chicken and decided to apply the Greek oregano flavors for an oven roast. Here’s how it turned out. I hope you’ll try it – it looks like you went to a lot of trouble, but you didn’t!!

Let’s get started.

INGREDIENTS

1 (3-5 lb.) whole chicken

Brine: In large container, dissolve ½ cup table salt into about a quart of water. After you’ve rinsed the whole chicken, inside and out, place it in the brine and more add water, if needed, just enough to cover the bird. Press down on the bird a few times to push out air. Refrigerate 1 hour.

Spice rub: Mix in a cereal bowl (Let this meld while your chicken brines.)

1 lemon, using veg peeler, trim strips of zest. Then chop finely.

4 garlic cloves, pressed or finely chopped

3 Tablespoons Greek oregano

½ cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

Oven: Move rack to lower middle. Preheat 375.

Remove chicken from fridge/brine. Rinse and pat dry with paper towels, cavity too.

Using your roaster pan with a V-shaped roasting rack (or a deep baking sheet with wire rack):

Spray cooking oil across center of V-rack to help avoid sticking.

Place dried chicken atop rack, breast-side down and cut a few 1/4-inch deep slits a few inches long where you can. Spread 1 Tablespoon of spice rub across and make sure you get rub into the slits.

Flip chicken to breast-side up. Cut ½-inch deep slits across breasts, drum sticks, thighs. Rub remainder of spice-rub onto the breast side, pushing it into the slits. Make sure all parts of the chicken, wings too, are coated.

Lemon – cut into quarters and insert 2 into cavity with 2 cloves of garlic. Using twine, bring chicken legs together for even cooking.

Allow coated chicken to rest 15-20 minutes on the countertop.

Bake 40 minutes. Remove from oven and add 2 cups chicken broth to the roasting pan to make sauce after everything’s done. Turn heat up to 450 and bake chicken again another 45-60 minutes or until the thickest part of the breast registers 160-165 degrees and thickest part of the thigh registers 175 on an instant-read thermometer.

Remove the roasting pan from the oven. Tip the pan V-rack to let the juices run from the cavity into the roasting pan. Transfer chicken to carving board (set inside a baking sheet, to catch wandering juices) and let rest, uncovered while making the sauce. Remove V-rack from roasting pan.

Adjust the oven rack to the upper-middle position and heat the broiler. Skim the fat from the drippings and add another 2 cups chicken broth. (I’m also adding some halved mushrooms. If you’ve got sliced or baby carrots, that also would be good.) Set roasting pan on a stove burner on high heat. Simmer the liquid and use a wooden spoon to loosen the browned bits until it’s reduced to about a cup. Set aside off heat.

Chicken: Remove lemons and garlic from cavity and cut chicken into quarters. Pour whatever juices have accumulated on the cutting board/baking sheet back into the sauce. Place the chicken pieces into the sauce, skin-side up and broil the chicken until the skin is crisp and golden brown, about 4-5 minutes. Transfer chicken to serving platter.

Taste the sauce and add more lemon juice, if you prefer. Whisk 2 Tablespoons butter into the sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve chicken with pan sauce and lemon wedges.

Photo: Patsy R. Brumfield