Engagement Chicken

When I graduated (I can't remember if it was high school or college), one of my best friends' mom gave me this cookbook. 

It has some really great recipes, and their signature dish is "Engagement Chicken" so I decided I'd give it a shot. I bought a 4 pound chicken from Walmart for a whopping $6.70, and the only other ingredients I needed were salt, pepper, lemon juice, and whole lemons! Buy an extra lemon to use as garnish if serving to guests (or if you're just feeling fancy). This fed Joel and me two dinners and one lunch. I ate mine plain with a fork and knife, but Joel ate his with cheese in a tortilla.

It was a super easy recipe that, if presented right, can appear to be a semi-fancy meal that you slaved over for hours. Here's the prepared chicken right before it went in the oven:

So here's how you do it:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Remove the neck and giblets (usually already in a plastic bag inside the bird). Rinse with cold water inside and out. Pat dry with paper towel.
3. Season generously inside and out with 1/2 cup lemon juice and plenty of salt and pepper. I used freshly ground sea salt and normal black pepper.
4. Cut into the lemons to expose the fruit and allow the juice to flow out while it's cooking, but don't slice all the way through the lemon. It should still be in one piece.
5. Place cut lemons inside the open cavity. The size of the bird will determine how many lemons will fit inside. I fit 2 inside a 4 pound chicken.
6. Lower oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 10 minutes breast side down. 
7. After 10 minutes, carefully flip bird so that it is breast side up. Re-season if desired and bake 15-20 minutes per pound of your chicken. Chicken is done when juices run clear and a thermometer inserted into the breast is 160 degrees (thighs should be 180 degrees).
8. Squeeze lemons and spoon juice from pan back over the meat. This is the tastiest part!
9. Let rest 10 minutes before carving. 

You really don't even need a recipe for this! It was super simple and very tasty. We had ours with green beans, but it would go well with any starch and/or vegetable. Enjoy!