Roast Chicken with Lemon and Sage

 

from Gourmet – Julia Child
via Anne Halsted
serves 8 (generously)

 

One 7 to 8-pound roasting chicken

salt and pepper

6 fresh sage leaves (or 4 sprigs of fresh tarragon)

1 large lemon, cut into ¼ inch slices

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

⅔ cup (or so) roughly chopped carrots and onions

roasting pan with a v-shaped roasting rack

2 tablespoons minced shallots

⅓ cup dry white wine

⅔ cup chicken stock

 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Rinse chicken thoroughly, inside and out, under hot water. Then dry it with paper towels. Remove any lumps of fat from inside the cavity near the tail opening. To make carving easier, you may remove the wishbone. Then trim the small bony protrusions (“nubbins”) from the wing tip joint. Fold the wings up under the breast, where they will be held in place by the v-rack.

Salt and pepper the cavity and place the sage leaves and 3 or 4 lemon slices inside. Give the slices a squeeze as you put them in. Rub the butter over the entire chicken skin, top and bottom, salt generously.

Tie the ends of the drumsticks together with twine. Place the chicken in the rack breast side up. Squeeze the remaining lemon pieces over the top. Set the pan in the oven. After 20 minutes, lower the heat to 375 degrees and roast for another hour and a half or longer. When the chicken begins to brown rapidly (about 30 minutes), baste with accumulated pan juices. Add the onions and carrots, continuing to baste every 20 minutes or so. Roast until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the inner thigh registers 180 degrees.

When done, remove from the oven and tent with aluminum foil to keep warm. Let rest for 15 minutes until carving. Spoon fat off the top of the pan juices. Place the roasting pan on a stove burner over medium heat. Add de-fatted pan juices and shallots and stir for a minute until sizzling. Pour in wine and the stock and heat rapidly to a simmer scraping up all the glazed bits in the pan. Cook briefly until the liquid is slightly syrupy. Strain into a saucepan. Keep cooking until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve chicken, passing sauce separately.