WINNER, WINNER ROAST CHICKEN DINNER

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True story, I roast a chicken every week, with few exceptions. It's one of my all-time favorite dinners, also one of the easiest, and smells oh so good while it's cooking. I almost always use a lemon and some combination of fresh herbs, this recipe is no exception. 

Lemon, Rosemary, Thyme & Lavender Roast Chicken

Preheat oven to 425° / 400° if using convection

1 4-4 ½ pound organic chicken (it doesn't HAVE TO BE organic but if you can then why not)

1 to 2 lemons (use 2 if they're small, and Meyer's are always the best choice—personal preference—when they're in season)

6 to 8 sprigs each of fresh rosemary & thyme (a good handful of each, really, no need to count exactly)

1 ½ teaspoons dried culinary lavender, crushed in a mortar and pestle (yah, people still use them)

3 tablespoons butter

Olive oil

Kosher salt & pepper

Cooking twine, small piece just to tie the legs (if you don't have it, don't fret, it'll still be great without the bondage)

First things first, mash the butter and lavender together—presto, lavender butter. On to the chicken ... rinse, or don't, it's up for debate, and up to you. I rinse with cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Using your fingers, carefully separate the skin from the chicken breast. Stuff the following under the skin on each side of the breast: ⅓ of the lavender butter, 2 lemons slices, and a couple of sprigs of rosemary and thyme. Stick a lemon slice and a sprig of rosemary and thyme in the little pocket between the body and thigh. The rest of the herbs, lemons and lavender butter go inside the chicken along with some salt and pepper. 

Tie the legs. Drizzle a little olive oil over the chicken and generously season with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. Pop that bird in the oven, kick back and relax. Have a glass of wine because what you choose to serve with it can be as simple and easy as a salad. It's going to roast for about an hour. It's done when the juices run clear when you poke the thigh with a sharp knife. If you prefer to go by temperatures, everybody says 165°. Just be careful not to over cook it, dry chicken is sad. When it's done let it rest a good 10 to 15 minutes, makes all the difference. Whip up a simple green salad and you're a winner, winner, cuz you chicken dinner is going to be delicious.

Pan Roasted Lemon & Herb Chicken Thighs

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True confession, I make chicken a lot. Weekly, sometimes more than once. There's just so many things you can do with the humble chicken. Roast it whole if you ever want to truly impress people that don't cook very often. They're always amazed thinking it's difficult to do. Even easier than roasting a whole chicken is roasting chicken thighs ... and legs, sometimes you want to mix it up a bit. I think my favorite thing about this particular chicken isn't the chicken at all, it's the melt in your mouth roasted lemons and shallots, but the chicken is really good too. The amount of chicken thighs you choose to roast is really up to you and the size of your pan. You'll need to use a pan that can go from the oven to a burner on the stove top to make the pan sauce to finish the dish. This is a loose and easy recipe, precise measurements aren't necessary. 

Here's what you're going to need:

4 to 6 chicken thighs (again, if you have a large enough pan you could do 8 as well)

1 to 2 lemons, I love Meyer lemons but sadly they aren't in season year around so a regular old lemon will work too.

Several sprigs of fresh Rosemary. (You can use fresh Thyme or Tarragon as well, I've made it with Tarragon and it's really nice.)

1 or 2 shallots, roughly cut in half or quartered if large.

Olive Oil

Kosher Salt and Pepper

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For the Pan Sauce:

White Wine or Chicken broth, just of glug of whichever you're using. A glug being about a ¼ cup  give or take, but like I said, it's not necessary to precisely measure this.

Butter. Just a dab, maybe a teaspoon-ish, to finish the sauce and add a little richness. It's optional but highly recommended.

Lets make this:

Preheat the oven to 400°

Drizzle the chicken with olive oil and season both sides with salt and pepper. Arrange the chicken, skin side up, in a pan. Tuck the lemon slices, shallots and herbs around and drizzle them with a little more olive oil, salt and pepper. Into a 400° oven for about 40 minutes.

When done, remove the chicken from the pan and set aside, keeping it warm while you make the pan sauce. Over medium heat bring all those delicious lemon and herby chicken juices to a boil and let them reduce down a bit, turning the heat to medium/low or low to maintain a simmer. Add a glug of white wine, Sauvignon Blanc works well as does a dry Riesling, and stir, scraping up any of those bits of flavor stuck to the pan. Finish with a dab of butter, stirring through. Take off the heat, return the chicken to the pan and you're ready to serve.

Easy for any night of the week and you can switch it up any way you want. Don't have a shallots? Smash a couple garlic cloves. No rosemary? Tarragon and thyme work great. No fresh herbs at all? I've made it with dried in a pinch ... let's be honest though, we're all friends here after all, sorta, fresh is always better. Enjoy! 

Meyer Lemon & Rosemary Shortbread

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Meyer Lemons are possibly the most perfect lemon variety, at least that's my opinion. I use them in everything and am always sad when the last one on my little dwarf tree is gone. Fortunately I have a friend who has a large tree and always too many lemons to use, lucky for me. So what's a person to do with too many (impossible, I say) Meyer Lemons, a handful of fresh picked rosemary and lots of butter? Shortbread. It's maybe one of my favorite cookie varieties, not too sweet, very buttery. The lemony flavor will intensify over time, so don't plan on eating them the day you bake them or you'll miss out on that. These cookies keep really well in an airtight container so ration them out.

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 ¼ teaspoons kosher salt

¾ cup confectioners sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 tablespoon Meyer lemon zest

1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves

Combine flour and salt in a bowl and set aside. Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar together. Once creamed, add the lemon zest and mix until evenly blended, do the same with the rosemary. Add the flour and salt a little at a time. When it's all combined, dump the dough into a buttered 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom, pressing it into the pan. Putting some plastic wrap over the dough makes it easier to smooth out. Chill for at least 30 minutes. With the back of a knife, you can lightly score wedges into the chilled dough for easier cutting later, which I totally forgot to do. Bake at 300° for 1 hour.