Ingredients

• 3-4 lb whole chicken
• 2 lemons
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil or 2 teaspoons dried basil
• dash kosher salt

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 375 F
2. Grate lemon peel from both lemons (be sure to wash ‘em). Then mix the lemon peel, chopped garlic, and the melted butter together. Set that nice smelly stuff aside.
3. Cut one lemon in half. Rub the chicken with the juice from that lemon. Then cut the other lemon in half and put the first half into the cavity of the chicken, then half the basil, then the sliced garlic, and then the other half of the lemon. nathan calls this step shoving the lemon up the chicken’s butt. mmm. appetizing.
4. Place the chicken breast side up in a shallow roasting pan (apparently, says betty crocker, you should put it on a rack and THEN in a roasting pan, but whatever. the chicken already has a rack. ha. ha.) Sprinkle the chicken with that dash o’ kosher salt. Then brush that nicely smelling mixture you made earlier all over the chicken. Then sprinkle the rest of the basil all over the chicken, too. Then press that basil good.
5. Pop the chicken into the oven and roast for around 1.5-2 hours or until done. It’s done when you stick a meat thermometer in the thigh muscle (and not touching a bone) and it reads at least 180 F. Let the chicken stand for 15 minutes before cutting that baby up.

Categories: recipes