Engagement Roast Chicken

Engagement Chicken is just a basic roast chicken recipe that was published in the January 2004 Glamour magazine, a magical combination of chicken, lemons, salt and pepper that supposedly causes men to pop "the question."

The Engagement Chicken recipe was lifted from a former Glamour magazine fashion editor and foodie named Kimberly Bonnell, who advised anxious young staffers to cook this fool-proof chicken dish for boyfriends they wanted to impress. (The recipe was originally published in a cookbook called Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan under the less Glamour-ous name Roast Chicken with Lemons.) As the legend goes, the boyfriends morphed into husbands within a year after they consumed the chicken dinner.

A Glamour reader who tried the Engagement Chicken recipe testified to its magical powers in a letter to the magazine. "I made Engagement Chicken for my live-in boyfriend and less than two months later, I'm wearing a wedding band." I can attest to its powers because its kemp me married over 23 years now and it one of he hubsters favorite Sunday dinners.

Engagement Chicken

Ingredients


1 (4 to 5 pound) roasting chicken
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 lemons
1 lime
1 whole head garlic, cut in 1/2 crosswise
Good olive oil
2 Spanish onions, peeled and thickly sliced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken stock, preferably homemade
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Remove and discard the chicken giblets. Pat the outside dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Cut the lemons in quarters, place 2 quarters in the chicken along with the garlic and reserve the rest of the lemons. Brush the outside of the chicken with olive oil and sprinkle the chicken liberally with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Place the chicken in a small (11 by 14-inch) roasting pan. (If the pan is too large, the onions will burn.) Place the reserved lemons and the sliced onions in a large bowl and toss with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper. Pour the mixture around the chicken in the pan.

Roast the chicken for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and a thigh and it reaches an internal temperature of 180 degree F at it fattest part. Remove the chicken to a platter, cover with aluminum foil, and allow to rest for 10 minutes while you prepare the sauce, leaving the lemons and onions in the pan.

Place the pan on top of the stove and turn the heat to medium-high. Add the wine and stir with a wooden spoon to scrape up the brown bits. Add the stock and sprinkle on the flour, stirring constantly for a minute, until the sauce thickens. Add any juices that collect under the chicken. Carve the chicken onto a platter and serve with the lemons, onions, and warm sauce.