In which DH the poultry-allergic guy eats a TV dinner

Tonight's Menu

• slow-roasted chicken with garlic and lemon
  
• quinoa
  
• gigantic salad
  

I checked out a copy of Nigella Lawson's Forever Summer from the library recently, and her recipe for slow-roasted chicken with garlic and lemon sounded FABULOUS so I tried a variation on it tonight. Poor DH, who is allergic to poultry, had to make do with a frozen Marie Callender's dinner (his choice, not mine!).

Nigella's recipe calls for a 3-4 lb. cut-up chicken, but I had a couple of pounds of thighs (skin on, bones in) so I used those. Toss them in a roasting pan with two lemons cut into eighths, a head of garlic broken into individual UNpeeled cloves, some thyme (she uses fresh, I used dried) and a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Once you've tossed everything around, spread things out a little and then turn all the chicken pieces skin side up, sprinkle on maybe 1/4 to 1/3 cup dry white wine (I used pinot grigio because it's what I had) and some freshly ground pepper, then cover the pan tightly with foil. She cooks hers for 2 hours at 300, then uncovers it, boosts the temperature to 400, and cooks it 30-45 minutes longer. Since I only had two pounds of meat, I did mine at 275 for the first two hours, then uncovered and turned it up to 375 for 45 minutes. The skin was crisp, the meat was moist and tender, the garlic was caramelized -- delicious!

This was a great "family" dinner, but I would not hesitate to make it for company. Be sure to eat the garlic along with the meat! Nigella advocates eating the lemons too, but mine didn't go soft/candied enough for that.