Lemon Chicken and Couscous

I finally tried Marcella Hazan's Lemon Roast Chicken recipe tonight. Click here for the recipe. It was delicious. I don't know if it was the lemons or my extra care not to overcook, but the chicken was incredibly tender all over. The one downside to this recipe is that the outside skin doesn't crisp up as much as I'd like. I think I can compensate for it by turning the oven way up for just the last couple of minutes without affecting the internal texture. We'll see.

Vegetable couscous is easy. Brown some onions in olive oil, toss in any other diced vegetables you have lying around and sautee until half cooked. For four services I used about three cups of vegetables. Add a cup of couscous and two cups of water (or follow the instructions on the box), bring to a boil, and then lower to a simmer until couscous is cooked through. Stir every few minutes to ensure even cooking. Depending on what kind of couscous you buy, this can take between five and fifteen minutes, so read the box. I add whatever spices strike my fancy. Last night it was salt, pepper, paprika, shallot salt, fresh lemon thyme, and fresh sage. Towards the end I also stirred in a generous amount of pan drippings from the chicken and a squeeze of one of the lemons after I took it out of the chicken.

The most fun part of this recipe is trying to get two large lemons into one small chicken. I suggest one small lemon for the part of the cavity closer to the neck, and a bigger lemon for the large part of the cavity. Don't forget to skewer your chicken closed. I knew the butt would let off a lot of fat, so I stuck it in a position to baste the inside as well as outside of the chicken.

Guests who stayed late at last week's dinner will remember strawberry sorbet. Tonight, it became a strawberry daiquri. Tomorrow, the last of it will become a strawberry lemon smoothie. I will be very sad when strawberry season draws to a close.