Garlicky Lemony Roast Chicken

We got a beautiful whole chicken in last month's CSA which Elaine kindly split in two so that we could each have a half. I wanted to roast mine and I also wanted the skin to get crispy, the meat to stay juicy and I wanted to add a big kick of flavor so I settled on garlic and lemon with some roasted potatoes and onions on the side. I modified a Cook's Illustrated reecipe and it turned out just the way I wanted! Here's what you need (double it if you have a whole chicken, which you probably do):

Half chicken

5 cloves garlic

2 tsp kosher salt

1 lemon

potatoes, quartered (however many you want)

onions, quartered (however many you want)

olive oil

Make a garlic paste:

Smash your garlic cloves then add the kosher salt and work into a paste using the flat of your knife. Just keep chopping and smashing until its a pasty consistency.

Gently separate the chicken skin from the chicken but don't remove it. Using your fingers, spread the garlic paste between the skin and meat. Really get in there and coat the entire chicken. Then, squeeze the juice of one lemon all over the chicken.

I don't have a roasting pan so I used a wire cooling rack set over a 9" x 13" baking pan. I cut the squeezed lemon into quarters and put them on the cooling rack and put the chicken, breast side down, on top of the lemons. If you're using a whole chicken, you can probably just put the lemons inside the cavity. Place the chicken in a 375 degree oven for 25-30 minutes. Remove the chicken from the oven and raise the oven temperature to 450 degrees. Turn the chicken over so the breast side is up. Once the oven is up to temperature, put the chicken back in and cook for another 20-25 minutes until your juices run clear.

Nothing can be easier than roasted veggies - I added my potatoes and onions, drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper, to the oven when I turned it up to 450 and everything was done at the same time.