Engagement Chicken- It Really Works!

Quite a few yeas ago, before I was even dating my husband I read an article in Glamour magazine about "Engagement Chicken". It claimed that all of the staffers at the magazine who had made the chicken for their boyfriends wound up engaged a short time later. So, being a red-blooded-wanting-to-get-married girl, I ripped the page out. A short time later, I found myself on a ski vacation with my then-boyfriend-now-husband. We were in a ski town and were planning to eat in. I pulled out this recipe and started making a roast chicken (never showing him the page). I'm pretty sure he was building a fire or some other non-kitchen related activity. The chicken was a hit, we talked about the possibility of getting married and what we would name our children (so far only our first daughter's name has stayed the same!), and our relationship was set.

Imagine my surprise when I opened one of my favorite cookbooks, Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics  to find this same recipe, with her tweaks, in it! Here it is for you to enjoy. I'm pretty sure that part of the reason it "works" is that in this day and age (oh my, I sound WAY older than 32 right now!) women need to show a softer side, like cooking, to appeal to a man. I think it was this recipe and my individual chocolate souffles that went a long way towards making my never-thought-of-marriage-we-are-in-grad-school boyfriend into a husband at the ripe old age of 25.

I use an organic kosher chicken that I get from trader Joe's. The kosher chickens have been slated as part of the process, which effectively makes them brined, so they are extra delicious. Ina Garten, the Barefoot COntessa, even recommends a kosher Turkey for Thanksgiving for this very reason.



Cut up 1-2 lemons, squeeze the juice over the chicken and stuff the lemons into the chicken cavity and around the sides. Add vegetables of your choice around the chicken, I like onions and carrots, but small potatoes, are good too. Drizzle olive oil over the top of everything, and sprinkle with kosher salt. You can also add pepper, but ever since my first pregnancy I can't stand pepper in anything.



I served it with roasted asparagus and broccoli. I like any meanls where everythign is on the oven all together:)

Roast at 400 for about an hour, the chicken is done when the juices run clear (you can try cutting it right at the thigh, NOT on the breast as pictured, but I was nursing so my husband was checking it for me). If the chicken or veggies start to burn, just cover everything loosely with foil and keep on cooking. Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes before carving so the juices redistribute.



I also made an extra dish of cut up chicken pieces since I was serving so many people.

Oh, and that night we took a great picture of me, two of my sisters, my grandma, and my daughter on our deck. And by "great" I mean that we were all in it, not that one of my sister's had her eyes closed and that the lighting if off and it's blurry, but you get the idea.

Here's the view at night, just for the heck of it.




Enjoy!

Jessica

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