Italian Comfort Foods for Summer: Roast Chicken with Two Lemons

Learn how to make chef Marcella Hazan’s classic dish

We undertook beloved Italian chef Marcella Hazan’s comforting recipe for Roast Chicken with Two Lemons. The Italian-born Hazan is credited with translating the art and traditions of authentic Italian cooking to English-speaking audiences in the U.K. and the United States, beginning with her first cookbook entitled “The Classic Italian Cookbook,” published in 1973. Her humble roots as a teacher and world-renowned master of Italian cooking started when she began teaching cooking classes in her Manhattan apartment. Marcella, who passed away at 89 years old in 2013, left us with several famous recipes, including her recipe for Roasted Chicken with Two Lemons. It produces a crispy-skinned bird, with a super-moist and citrus-laced interior. Hazan’s original recipe directs the home cook to wash the chicken under cold running water, but we skip this step since cleaning the raw bird this way increases the risk of food-borne illness. Instead, give your chicken a thorough pat with paper towels.

If you have leftovers, this dish makes for a beautiful, cold summer chicken salad for the following day.

[ Recipe adapted from Marcella Hazan’s, Chicken with Two Lemons]

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 whole, skin-on, 3 or 4-pound chicken
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 small lemons, washed and dried

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Set your oven rack to the upper third most part of your oven.
2. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and remove any visible excess fat.
3. Generously season the bird with salt and pepper, using your clean fingers to rub it all over the outside of the chicken. Add salt and pepper to the cavity as well.
4. Soften the lemons by placing them on a flat surface, and rolling them back and forth, using the palm of your hand to press down firmly. Use a fork to poke 20 holes in each lemon so that they can release their juices while the chicken is roasting.
5. Place both lemons in the bird's cavity and close the cavity with toothpicks or with a trussing needle and string.
6. Place the chicken into a roasting pan, breast facing down. You do not need to add cooking for this recipe because as Hazan advises in her original recipe “This bird is self-basting, so you need not fear it will stick to the pan”. After 30 minutes, turn the chicken over, and cook for 30 to 35 minutes more.
7. Increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees and continue cooking for 20 to 25 more minutes, or until the skin is browned and crispy.
8. To serve, carve the bird and spoon the lemony juices over it.