Engagement Chicken

engagement chicken

I know, I know, I know…. I’m back yada yada yada. And yes, I have been missing in action for quite some bit now but I AM BACK!! And why not make my comeback with the infamous engagement chicken from Glamour magazine!

This was my very first chicken roast, and it will definitely be something I plan on doing again but using different flavors and spices :)

Now, back to this chicken! Apparently, this is the chicken Howard Stern’s girlfriend (at the time) made for dinner one night and I guess the story is that days later he popped the question! But that’s not the true origin of the engagement chicken.

This chicken has been around for years, like yeeeeears!! This recipe was passed down to one of the assistants from one of the Glamour fashion editors. She made the chicken for her boyfriend, who a month later asked her to marry him. How romantic! And uhhh weird that a chicken led to marriage? :/

Of course, I am a true sucker for cheeseball stories, so I gave it try! I dub this my “ulterior motive” chicken :)

The recipe itself is very basic and easy, all you really need are lemons!

But I added in some veggies and potatoes for a more heartier meal. And to make things even easier, I went with the pre-chopped asparagus medley from Trader Joe’s! All I had to do was chop a potato into bite-sized cubes and season everything with some olive oil, salt, and pepper.

After that was done, it was on to the fun part! Washing and cleaning the chicken! PS, thank you Trader Joe’s for pre-cleaning the inside and taking out all of the inners and packaging them ever so neatly :)

After bathing and drying off my poor chicken, who I named Christian Grey thanks to my favorite satirical cookbook Fifty Shades of Chicken, I squeezed, poked, and prodded the lemons!

After seasoning the inside/outside of the chicken and giving it a good rub-down, and not to mention stuffing it with a lemon or two, I stuck pieces of butter (err my special roasted garlic compound butter I made!) under and on top of the skin. Making Paula Deen proud :D

And finally the baking process begins!!! The first 15 minutes…

A little flip and 1.5 hours later….

The inside!!

Just beautiful :)

And to finish off my engagement chicken dinner, I baked some par-baked bread from Trader Joe’s and made some brown jasmine rice.

The boyfriend took over carving duties because….well, I don’t know how to carve a chicken :(

Can you guess which plate is his and hers? :)

his

and hers

So was there an engagement at the end of the night??!

Still pending… till next time!

xoxo, kat

PS, Have you ever made the engagement chicken before?

Engagement Chicken (from Glamour Magazine)

• 1 whole chicken (4 lbs)
• 1/2 cup of fresh lemon juice
• 2 whole lemons
• 1 tablespoon of pink himalayan salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of fresh cracked pepper
• trader joe’s asparagus saute mix
• 1 potato (cut into cubes)
• 1/4 cup of olive oil

Directions:

1. Position an oven rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F. Clean and remove the gibblets from the chicken. Wash the chicken inside and out with cold water, then let the chicken drain, cavity down, in a colander for 2 minutes.
2. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Place the chicken breast-side down in a medium roasting pan fitted with a rack and pour the lemon juice all over the chicken, both inside and out. Season the chicken all over with salt and pepper inside and out.
3. Prick 2 whole lemons three times each in three different places with a fork and place them deep inside the cavity.
4. In a large bowl, coat the veggies and potatoes with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place the veggies and potato into the pan with the chicken.
5. Put the chicken in the oven, lower the oven temperature to 350°F, and roast, uncovered, for 15 minutes.
6. Remove the roasting pan from the oven. Using tongs or two wooden spoons, turn the chicken breast- side up. Insert a meat thermometer in the thigh, and return the chicken to the oven and roast for about 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the meat thermometer reads 180°F and the juices run clear when the thigh is pricked with a fork. Continue roasting if necessary.
7. Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes before carving.