Oven Roasted Chicken

This was a nice Sunday meal. Robert thought there was too much lemon. I thought the citrus was nice, but that it needed more (or fresher) herbs.  The recipe in the cookbook suggests making this with potatoes. Of course, we didn't do that, but finished the meal with salad, asparagus, and couscous.

Roasting a whole chicken was nice because we used the leftovers for lunches (as-is or in sandwiches) for part of the week, and repurposed it in a really nice salad one night for dinner (greens, bell peppers, radishes, tomatoes, carrots, parmesan cheese, and sunflower seeds with blue cheese dressing for Robert and oil and vinegar for me).

Lemon-Dijon Chicken

2 lemons
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp dried rosemary
3/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 whole chicken (about 3.5 pounds)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Squeeze 3 Tbsp juice from lemons; reserve squeezed lemon halves.  Combine parsley, lemon juice, mustard, garlic, oil, rosemary, pepper, and salt in small bowl; blend well.

2. Place chicken on rack in baking pan; gently slide fingers between skin and meat of chicken breasts and drumsticks to separate skin from the meat, being careful not to tear skin. Spoon parsley mixture between skin and meat and place lemon halves in cavity of chicken.  Bake as directed on package.