What's cooking good looking

After a few days home from our trip, where one night we ate Corned Beef and Cabbage(the best!!) at our friends' Joanne and Mitch's house, and the other we had lentil soup(Stelios' Greek recipe) the time has come for me to cook a meal.








Since I haven't yet made it to the market I rummaged through the freezer and came up with an organic chicken! She's sitting right on the refrigerator shelf right now getting nice and thawed. I plan to roast that baby in the oven with potatoes just like my grandmother Barbara used to when I visited her in her village of Ayios Epiktitos on the Northern coast of Cyprus.

Here's how it's going to go:

Greek lemon roasted chicken

Heat the oven to 425F

Ingredients

1 31/2 to 4 lb chicken, preferably organic
sea salt
coarsely grated fresh pepper
the juice of one lemon
1 tsp dried oregano
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
4 potatoes
1/4 cup warm water or broth

Rinse the chicken under cold water, and pat dry with paper towel.


Place the chicken in a roasting pan large enough to fit the bird and a few potatoes around it.
Sprinkle it liberally with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen twine and tuck the wings under so they don't burn.

Wash and quarter the potatoes and place around the chicken. Pour the olive oil over the chicken and potatoes and do the same with the lemon juice. Sprinkle more salt and pepper and the oregano over chicken and potatoes.

Place on the middle rack of the preheated oven and baste every 15 minutes for half an hour. Turn the heat down to 400F and roast for another 45 minutes or until the chicken is cooked to 170 degrees as measured with a meat thermometer. One good way to tell if the bird is done is to wiggle the drumstick. If it feels loose around the thigh it's ready and falling off the bone!

I remember my grandmas small hands around the drumstick, her onyx ring on her ring finger, her pinkies turned up as we dug into that chicken! Here's to you grandma, wherever you are!


Enjoy!

Maria