Lemon Chicken recipe by Giuliano Bugialli, wow.

Forums: Food, Recipes, Chicken, Giuliano Bugialli, Lemon Chicken
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So, I got this new cookbook, new to me anyway. The book fell open to a full color illustration of a roasted chicken with lemons on it, also roasted..

I read on. Sounded simple. I did it. Wonderful. Easily the best lemon chicken I've ever tried. And the best part is, this really simple recipe could be adapted, using oranges, or some other marinade.

The book is here - http://www.bugialli.com/books/intro4.htm

The recipe follows - comments in parentheses by osso

1 chicken, about 3 1/2 lbs. (I got an organic, no hormone, no antibio one, sustainable/chicken raising - splurging.)
4 lemons
2 medium sized cloves of garlic
15 sprigs of italian parsley (or regular parsley) (15 sprigs? some)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes (for me, a teaspoon)

To Serve - additional sprigs of fresh italian parsley

Procedure -
- Clean the chicken, removing the extra fat from the cavity. Open the chicken up by cutting it lengthwise through the breast bone. (I had that done at the grocery store I bought it at, no charge.)

- Put the flattened bird in a crockery or glass bowl. (I put it in a big glass baking dish.)

- Squeeze the lemons and pour the juice over the chicken. And the lemon halves to the bowl. (I picked out the seeds with a slotted spoon.)

- Finely chop the garlic and parsley together on a board and add them to the bowl with salt and pepper and the hot red pepper flakes. Let the chicken marinate for 1 hour in a cool place or the bottom shelf of the refrigerator, turning it four times. (I turned it twice)

- Preheat oven to 400.

- Transfer chicken to a baking dish. (Mine was already in a baking dish), preferably terracotta, and pour the marinade from the bowl over it. (I sloshed the marinade over the chicken.) Arrange the lemon halves on the chicken (very fetching) and roast for 45 minutes. (Mine took an hour, but I had a 4.1 lb chicken).

- Remove chicken from the oven and serve immediately with a few sprigs of parsley.

OK, talk about easy.

The book above with the recipe in it is NOT the one I have. It is at work, I'll have to double check the title.

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No one likes lemon chicken, schniff...... (Bump)

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I love lemon chicken. Sadly, Mrs. cav hates lemon.

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I love the lemon, but hate the chicken.

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littlek wrote:

I love the lemon, but hate the chicken.

What did the chicken ever do to you? You didn't try to stop it from crossing the road, did you? That may have made it angry. :wink: I'm pretty sure this recipe would work well in veggie form too. I have no idea what littlek eats, but the marinade would be great on a whole fish as well.

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Well, it could be done with oranges and red pepper and, hmmm, cumin?, like the mexican chicken franchise marinades. Or lots of other marinades. What interested me most was the butterflying process, what sense it made for roasting chicken. (Er, sorry, littleK).

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Well, it cooks quicker that way, osso. My personal preference is to cut it through the backbone, instead of the breastbone, but it really makes no difference in the end to the dish.

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There is one other benefit, related to simple physics. Flat surfaces absorb things quicker than round or oblong ones, like marinade.

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I considered trying Osso's recipe, but that bit about putting the flattened bird into a glass bowl bothered me.

It just sounds so hideous. Who the hell would want a flattened chicken in a glass bowl? What an apparition!

Nah, I'll just have a bowl of corn flakes.

Thanks anyway, Osso.

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Well, Gus, the recipe called for a ceramic bowl to marinate birdie, and a terracotta dish to roast it in, if possible. I just used the same dish. The photo showed a round terracotta dish, just like the one I ordered in Italy and gave away as a gift, mumble.
The business about glass or ceramic is because of the acid from the lemon, I bet... otherwise I would have used my large cast iron frying pan... Presumably one could use enamelled pans like Le Cruset.

OK, Cav, you're on, I'll try it from the backbone next time.
And, yep, it's faster, and I agree more of the bird is exposed to more flavors than some other ways of roasting.

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I'm going to try this recipe the next chance I get. Sounds great. I have a cookbook that explains how to 'sasquatch' a chicken so that it grills in 20 minutes. It's slightly more complicated than splitting it down the middle but the effect is similar. It cooks in about 1/3 the time because it's all one thickness.

I don't have any terracotta but I love an excuse to buy something so maybe I'll have to rename this terracotta chicken so dh will let me buy a new dish.

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I did the recipe again last night, this time with orange juice, cumin, chili, garlic, and parsley... wonderful again..
You have to use fewer oranges, natch..

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I've been searching online for terracotta. Found a nice one at cooking.com. DH is a sucker for authentic mexican cooking so the new version should convince him. When I announced I wanted a clay cooker for a new chicken recipe I want to try he said, 'Is it Mexican'? It is now....

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I printed your recipe Osso, it's going in the recipe drawer.

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osso

That looks such an easy but delicious recipe! I'm gonna try it, too! Very Happy

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I'm always looking for new ways to cook chicken. Thanks Osso Cool

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Lessee, I think I murmured somewhere it doesn't have to be clay - porcelain, glass, and I figure enamelled cast iron would do, whatever doesn't react with acidic marinade.

But dang it, I gave the perfect dish away to a friend, a thick italian terracotta round dish, sort of like a terracotta pie plate, but with good deep sides, say 1 3/4 or two inches.

As to squishing it down, jb, I did squish it down a little so the bottom would touch the marinade, or at least some of the bottom of the chicken would. I didn't squish it as much as I think that recipe you mentioned did.. Besides, you turn it a few times while marinating.

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It was delicious! I used split chicken breasts instead of a whole chicken but it was wonderful. I had a little trouble deciding what to serve with it. I finally decided on fresh green beans because they looked good at the store and pita bread with hummus. I would have used rice but I made that last night and I was out of potatos. No one cared about the starch anyway so the pita was fine.

I'm still on the hunt for a clay cooker. My birthday's coming up, I think I'll send dh a link to the one at cooking.com

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i also bought skinless breasts$1.99 a lb. Couldn't pass it up.
Used a glass dish...came out great. Caesars salad and red skin potatos...

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I'm glad it came out well..

I found this, it's spanish terracotta, comes in a lot of sizes, including a 15" dish - this one is about 13", I think it's big enough. They're called caziendas...
http://www.tienda.com/ceramics/pop/ca-07.html

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Lemon Chicken recipe by Giuliano Bugialli, wow.

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