Despite the fact that I live with a line cook, it’s been a while since I’ve had a good meal. I’m talking about the kind of meal that you look forward to all week and brings a smile to your face at the thought of it. Sunday dinner. Just so happens that when I was telling Stephen I really wanted a Sunday dinner, I just happened to come across this post for roast chicken with lemon and bacon-rosemary potatoes on Ezra Pound Cake. I bookmarked it and salivated for a week straight.
Thankfully, Stephen actually had a Sunday off, so he made me my Sunday dinner. Just in case you were wondering, this was the juiciest chicken that I’ve ever had. The potatoes were so good that I may have had seconds. We’re bacon obsessed around here, so we may have covered the entire chicken with bacon. That’s how we roll.
Roast Chicken With Lemon and Bacon-Thyme Potatoes
Adapted from Ezra Pound Cake
1-4lb chicken
Salt and ground black pepper
4 lbs Yukon gold potatoes
1 large lemon
1 bulb of garlic, broken into cloves
2 handfuls of fresh thyme (divided)
2 tbsp olive oil
Several strips of bacon
1. Preheat oven to 375F
2. Prep chicken by removing giblets (if necessary) and running chicken under cold water. Pat dry with paper towel. Rub it inside and out with salt and pepper. Let the chicken rest while you prep the potatoes. 
3. Boil a large pot of salted water. Cut potatoes into golf ball sized pieces and toss them into the pot with the whole lemon and the garlic cloves. Boil for 12 minutes. 
4. Drain potatoes. Steam dry in the pot for one minute. Remove garlic and lemon. Toss the potatoes around in the pot with a spoon so that they get roughed up, to help the potatoes crisp up in the oven.
5. Rub chicken all over with olive oil. Stab the lemon several times, and place into the chicken’s cavity, along with the garlic cloves and thyme. Add potatoes to the pan. Bake for 45 minutes. 
6. Transfer chicken to a plate. Add thyme to the potatoes in the pan, and toss with the chicken fat. Return chicken to centre of pan. Lay slices of bacon across the top of the chicken. Return to oven and roast for another 45 minutes, or until a meat thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the thigh reads 165F. 
7. Remove chicken from pan and place on cutting board. Allow to rest for 15 minutes. Remove bacon from chicken and crumble in the potatoes. 
8. Remove lemon, thyme and garlic from inside the chicken. Mush up the garlic and add to the potatoes. Carve the chicken and serve!
Posts
