Slow roasted garlic and lemon chicken

This cookbook challenge recipe for slow roasted garlic and lemon chicken comes from Forever Summer by Nigella Lawson. The book previously belonged to my late Mother in law who sadly died in 2016. She had marked many recipes in this book but never got chance to make them all. In her memory I am working my way through some of the recipes she ear marked. This recipe struck me as a dish that would work in both summer and winter alike, just varying the accompanying dishes.

Slow roasted garlic and lemon chicken

Ingredients – serves 4-6

1 chicken weighing about 2 kg cut into 10 pieces (I used skin on chicken thighs)
1 head of garlic separated but not peeled
2 unwaxed lemons cut into 8 chunks
150ml white wine
3 tablespoons olive oil (I used rapeseed oil)
Small handful of fresh thyme pulled from stalks
Black pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 160c fan.

In the roasting tin/ovenproof dish place the chicken, garlic cloves, lemon pieces, thyme and oil and mix it all together with your hands.

Pour over the white wine and grind on some black pepper. Cover the tin tightly with tin foil and place in the oven for 2 hours.

After this time remove the tin foil, turn the oven up to 200c and cook for another 30 minutes. This should caramelise the lemons and crisp the chicken skin.

I served the slow roasted garlic and lemon chicken with mini jacket potatoes and steamed vegetables. In summer it would be delicious with a hearty salad and crusty bread to mop up the juices.

Slow roasted garlic and lemon chicken
Slow roasted garlic and lemon chicken
Notes

The recipe called for a large whole chicken to be cut up, it can easily be made with thighs and breasts. Preferably with the skin on so it can be cooked until crispy.

I love the tartness of lemon but this dish was a little sour. When I make it again I would add a little soft brown sugar with the white wine to keep the tartness but reduce the sourness.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *