Week 3: Roasted Garlic Chicken

This was Emily's choice after last week's meatloaf (BEFORE she tasted the meatloaf, that is). I have to say, though, this was my least favorite recipe so far. Nice and easy to prepare, but I think I messed up along the way. Feel free to set me straight and tell me what I was supposed to do here!

I was smart enough, at least, to read through the whole recipe and figure out how to do this. So I'm deviating from how it was published. I'll reprint here in a chronological order of what you need to do first.

Roasting Garlic: Preheat the over to 400 degrees F. Place 1/2 cup peeled garlic cloves in the center of a piece of aluminum foil. Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil over the cloves and fold the foil over to form a loose packet. Place the packet on a baking sheet and roast for 30 to 40 minutes, until the garlic is very soft and light brown. Allow to cool before using.

Roasted Garlic-Lemon Brine Ingredients
1/2 cup roasted garlic cloves
2 cups water
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 lemon, cut into 4 wedges
2 bay leaves, crushed
1 3-4-pound whole roasting chicken

To prepare the brine, combine the garlic, water, salt, pepper, and olive oil in blender and puree until smooth. Squeeze in the juice from the lemon wedges, reserving the rinds, and blend to combine. Stir in the bay leaves.

Place the chicken in a large resealable plastic bag or bowl. Pour the brine over the chicken and toss to coat. Add the lemon rinds and press the air out of the bag and seal tightly or cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Remove the chicken from the brine. Season liberally on all sides with salt and pepper. Place the chicken, breast side up, on a rack set in a roasting pan. Roast for about 1 hour, until the juices run clear from the thigh when pierced with a fork.

Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes, then cut into portions and serve hot.

My notes:

• I was fortunate enough to have home-grown garlic from a coworker. Roasting the garlic made the house smell just wonderful! But I think I had too many little cloves and too many of varying sizes. I needed more than 1/2 teaspoon of the olive oil to lightly coat as many as I had. And some got a bit more brown than others.
• I only have olive oil, not the extra virgin kind (is that me at this point in life...older, wiser, and extra virgin again?!). So that's what I used. I have no idea if there is a significant difference.
• My day of preparation got away from me. I roasted the garlic, then put it in the fridge until I got home later that night. Maybe I should have just let it stay out on the counter?
• The brine and the chicken fit into a 1-gallon Ziploc bag. I put it all in that and put that in the bottom drawer in the refrigerator. I think I ended up with the chicken in the brine for about 17 hours.
• Here's where I'm challenged: I have a roasting pan, but I do not have a rack for it. I tried shopping for one, but I must have the smallest roasting pan God ever invented. I can't find rack that is small enough to fit this roasting pan anywhere! So I just plopped the chicken into the pan. Then I worried that it would stick like crazy to the bottom, so I poured a little bit of the brine into the bottom. The chicken didn't stick!
• But I also didn't know if I was supposed to leave the cover of the roasting pan on or off. So I cooked it for about 45 minutes with the cover on, then removed the cover for the remainder of the time. The chicken was very tender, but it seemed like I might have missed something.

Overall, a very easy recipe. Not bad, but not great either. Not sure what next week will bring...