That Roasted Chicken

I posted this completely self gratuitous picture of dinner last night on Facebook.  

And apparently it made your mouths water too.  Not only did it look delicious, it was!  And, it was quite easy and fast.  So here's the recipe.  It's my adaptation of Susan Spicer's Roasted Chicken with Olives, Lemon and Garlic (page 251 of her Crescent City Cooking book).  Her recipe calls for using a whole chicken and does not include potatoes or carrots which I added to make this more of a one-pot meal.

Chicken parts on the bone (whatever you like - I used breasts and thighs)
2 Lemons - zested and quartered
8-12 garlic cloves - smashed and peeled
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
Fresh Rosemary (about a tablespoon chopped - rest can stay on stem)
Carrots - peeled and cut
Potatoes - whatever kind you like, cut into halves/quarters/etc depending on the size of your potato
1 Onion - peeled and cut into large wedges
1 cup pitted Kalamata olives

Heat oven to 450.

Arrange chicken in roasting pan.  Squeeze 2 of the lemon quarters over the chicken and rub into each piece.  Take a few garlic cloves and slide under skin of chicken.  Let sit for a few minutes.  Pat dry then rub chicken with olive oil.  Season with salt (be generous), pepper, red pepper flakes and some chopped rosemary.  Throw 2-3 lemon quarters, rosemary sprigs and about half of the remaining garlic into the pan.  

Separately, toss the carrots and potatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Then add that to the pan all around the chicken as well.

Put roasting pan in oven for 20-30 minutes.  Remove, turn heat down to 350 and add onions, olives, lemon zest, remaining garlic and lemon quarters.  Put chicken back in oven for 15-20 minutes.
**Spicer's recipe, says to turn chicken to let it cook underneath and then turn again - and only to turn oven down to 400.  Although I reduced the cooking time for cut chicken vs. a whole chicken, mine was still a tad overcooked... and lost some of the lovely crispy-skinness... so I'm telling you NOT to turn it over and reduce oven temp even lower.  The original 450 temp for 30 minutes should give the lovely golden color we desire.

Remove pan from oven, remove chicken, carrots and potatoes to let rest and put pan over high heat on stove to reduce sauce.  The sauce is quite lemon-y but delish... if you want to tone it down, add a little chicken stock.  Let it reduce by about half and you have a wonderful sauce to spoon over your chicken!

ENJOY!