Roasted Lemon Chicken with Dirty Rice.

Roasted Lemon Chicken with Dirty Rice.

Roasted Lemon Chicken with Dirty Rice.

Start by marinating a whole fryer chicken in lemon juice and peels placed into a zip bag.

I use about 3 lemons which I first zest keeping the scrapings in a bowl.
Quarter the lemons, place the chicken into the bag and squeeze the pulp and juices into and over the bird. Shove a few of the squeezed wedges into the cavity and under the breast neck skin.
 Let rest for a least 2 hours or 4 if there’s time, turning the bag each hour to revive the marinade.
Remove after marinating and place onto a roast pan. Season the skin with salt and pepper.
Now with the zest add that and massage into the skin. If you wish add some fresh branches of thyme which will aid in the flavour finish. Now place into a preheated 375 degree oven for about 1 hour 30 minutes.
The skin should be starting to char. I melt 2 tbs of butter and with a pastry brush dipped into the cooking juices and the butter paint the whole bird. Now it’s time to turn up the broiler and place the bird under for about 5/10 minutes charring till all the skin is crispy brown. It’s now ready to serve.
Dirty rice is just a mixture of dice chopped chicken liver, neck meat, bacon, onion, coloured sweet and hot peppers, I use basmati rice as it cooks quick and stir fries easily. The juices at the bottom of the pan can be made into a delicious gravy by adding it to a sauce pan and mixing in 1 cup of cold chicken stock mixed with a tsp. corn starch. Heat till a rolling simmer is obtained.
Now break apart the chicken and plate with some rice and sauce.
A nice red wine vinegar and green onion olive oil tomato salad goes well.
Eat Well my friends.