What’s for Supper?

Rosemary and Lemon Chicken

Who else roams the grocery store aisles regularly, looking for inspiration for something different for supper??

In my attempt to cook nutritious and un-processed foods as much as I can, (we aren’t perfect eaters, far from it, but we try) (wine isn’t “processed” is it)? haha I find myself a few times a week, walking, what feels like aimlessly up and down the produce and meat section of the grocery store, looking for something to jump out to me with an idea for supper. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn’t haha. But when I was there recently I saw the fresh herbs and glanced at the rosemary! Then a thought came to me…rosemary lemon chicken! May not be a stretch for what some of you already cook for supper, as I know some people who are whiz’s in the kitchen 😉 but for me it was something different. I LOVE the smell of rosemary, so I threw that in the cart, I already had lemons at home for a lemon cheesecake recipe I plan on sharing soon 😉 So off to pick up a small, whole chicken, and I was set!

This recipe is so easy, and makes the house smell sooooo good while it’s cooking so it would be a great dish to cook if you have company coming over and you want them to think you spent lots of time and effort, but really its quick and relatively easy!! And it’s just a bit of a twist on a roasted chicken.

I’ve hardly ever used the open, roaster type pan that came with my oven, many years ago. They probably don’t even sell them that way anymore. haha. But I thought I would use it for this one.

Now, if you don’t absolutely love lemon, and love/plan to eat the skin of the cooked chicken, you might want to use less of the lemon zest. (You might also want to skip the step of squeezing fresh lemon juice over the chicken, half way through cooking). But if you’re like me and don’t really like the skin, and wasn’t planning on eating it (the skin), I used a lot of lemon zest.

I always cook my chicken with the breast side down, my Dad says this allows the juices to get to it, and makes it juicy! Sounds legit to me! So I rinsed it off, set it on the roasting pan then mixed up 4 simple ingredients.

• 1 clove of minced garlic (more if you want)
• zest of 1/2 a lemon (probably less if you plan on eating the skin)
• 3 or 4 sprigs of rosemary (chopped)
• 2 heaping tablespoons of butter, softened (I put mine in the microwave until almost melted)

Mix that all up (it’ll be pasty) and slather it all over the chicken. I also used half of the lemon, sliced it, along with some sliced onion, and stuffed it inside the chicken. Put it in a 425 degree oven.

Keep an eye on it as it may brown fast because it’s not covered. After about 45 minutes, mine was browning a bit too fast so I took it out, squeezed 1/2 a fresh lemon over it, covered it loosely with aluminum foil and turned the temperature down to 350. I left the foil on for the remainder of cooking. ( I have a convection oven)

I had a small chicken, I put it in the oven at 3:45 and we ate supper around 5:30 (so less than 2 hours) .

When it was done, I tore it (loosely) apart and then took another 1/2 lemon and squeezed the juice from it, all over the chicken.

My husband even commented that it was really juicy! 🙂

I served it with boiled potatoes and asparagus, but it would also be great with oven roasted, seasoned potatoes, and/or a fresh green or pasta salad with it would also be delicious. It was very tender and juicy, with only a slight lemon flavor. The skin, like I said earlier, was very tart but I don’t eat it anyways. AND the house smelled yummy!!

I think I will do random post in a ” What’s for Supper” category when I make something a bit different or something I think others will enjoy as well. Let me know if you think this is a good idea. 🙂 You can do so by writing a comment below, or sending me an email from the “contact Janie-Marie” tab at the top of the page. You can also let me know if you try a recipe that I posted, and what you thought of it!

And if you like this post/blog you can subscribe to receive emails, (below) so you get notified when a new post is up. Please feel free to share on social media as well.

Thanks for reading! 🙂