Charred-Lemon Chicken with Schmaltz Potatoes
- Yield
- 4 servings
Crisp skin and crisp potatoes come from the same two things: a dry surface and hot fat. So the bird spends a night uncovered in the refrigerator with salt and a little baking powder, and the skin roasts up thin and crackly. The potatoes get parboiled with baking soda and shaken until their edges go fuzzy, then fry in the fat the chicken drips into the pan. Lemons char face-down while the bird rests and get squeezed over everything. Chicken and schmaltz bring the richness, charred lemon a toasty sour, and a salsa verde of parsley, capers and garlic cuts through it all.
IngredientsTips are one tap away.
Ingredients
Batches and reset
4 servings · US measures · 1 batch
Batching
Roast one chicken per large roasting pan. For 8 servings, dry-brine and roast a second chicken in its own pan with its own potatoes; roasting time depends on the bird's size and the 165°F readings, not on the number of birds.
Original recipe: 4 servings.
Nutrition is incomplete. The kosher salt is partly eaten and partly poured away with the potato water, the potato oil and chicken fat end up partly in the pan, and the lemons and garlic head flavor the dish in amounts that are not measured, so none of these is counted. The chicken counts its edible meat and skin; the salsa verde counts in full; flaky salt and pepper added to taste are not included.
Before you start
- Read through the recipe the day before you cook: the chicken needs a night uncovered in the refrigerator. Gather the rack and sheet pan, pot, colander, roasting pan, bowl, platter, foil, thermometer and measured ingredients, and keep raw chicken away from other food. If your kosher salt is the dense, fine-grained kind, use about half as much.
Directions
Start the day before
For the whole recipe
Read through the recipe, gather the equipment and use the ingredient lines to measure and prepare everything. Start the day before, because the chicken dries uncovered in the refrigerator overnight. Keep the raw chicken and its juices away from other food, and wash your hands and anything the chicken touched. Everything is measured and within reach.
Dry-brine the bird overnight
For each chicken
Pat the chicken dry inside and out with paper towels. Stir 1 tbsp kosher salt with 1 tsp baking powder and rub it evenly over the skin, with a little inside the cavity. Set the chicken breast side up on the wire rack in the rimmed sheet pan and refrigerate it uncovered on the bottom shelf, away from ready-to-eat food, overnight, until the skin looks dry, tight and slightly translucent.
Why it works: salt, air and baking powder
Salt seasons the meat all the way through and pulls water out of the skin, and a night of cold, open air dries it further. Baking powder makes the skin slightly alkaline, so it browns faster and turns brittle instead of leathery.
If it goes wrong: you forgot to start yesterday
Salt it anyway and let it sit uncovered on the rack for as long as you have. The meat is still seasoned; the skin just browns a little less evenly.
Heat the oven all the way
For each chicken
Heat the oven to 425°F (220°C; 200°C fan) with a rack in the middle position. Roast only after the oven reaches 425°F.
Parboil the potatoes with baking soda
For each chicken
Bring 12 cups water, 1 tbsp kosher salt and 1/2 tsp baking soda to a boil in a 5- to 6-quart pot over high heat. Add the potatoes, return to a boil and cook until a knife slips into a chunk with little resistance but the edges still hold, about 10 to 12 minutes.
Why it works: baking soda in the water
A little baking soda breaks down the outside of each potato, and shaking turns that soft layer into a starchy paste. In hot fat the paste fries into a thick, craggy crust you can hear.
If it goes wrong: the potatoes are falling apart
Drain them right away and handle them gently. Broken edges are not a problem; they turn into the crunchiest bits in the pan.
Shake the potatoes rough
For each chicken
Pour the potatoes into the colander, shake off the water and return them to the empty pot. Add 2 tbsp sunflower oil, cover and shake the pot hard until the potato edges look fluffy and coated in a starchy paste. Spread them around the edges of the large roasting pan with the garlic head halves cut side up, and set the chicken breast side up in the middle.
Roast to temperature, not time
For each chicken
Roast on the middle rack at 425°F until the thickest part of the breast and the innermost part of the thigh both read 165°F (74°C) on an instant-read thermometer held away from the bone, about 55 to 70 minutes. Turn the potatoes once in the rendered chicken fat halfway through.
Technique: reading a whole bird
Push the probe into the thickest part of the breast, then into the thigh where it meets the body, keeping the tip off the bone, which throws the reading off. Both spots have to reach 165°F before the bird comes out.
Stir the salsa verde together
For each chicken
Meanwhile, stir 1 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, 2 tbsp capers, the grated garlic, the lemon zest and juice and 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil together in a small bowl until the sauce is loose and spoonable. Keep it at room temperature until serving.
Swap: chimichurri for the salsa verde
The sauce's job is sharp, green and salty against all that fat. A chimichurri with oregano and red wine vinegar does the same job with a louder garlic note.
Rest the chicken, char the lemons
For each chicken
Move the chicken to the platter and cover it loosely with the foil to rest. Raise the oven to 450°F (230°C; 210°C fan). Turn the potatoes in the chicken fat and pan juices in the large roasting pan, push them aside and set the halved lemons cut side down in the pan. Roast on the middle rack until the potatoes are deep golden and crackly and the lemons are charred underneath, about 15 to 20 minutes.
Why it works: charred lemon
Searing the cut face caramelizes the lemon's sugars and softens its acid, so the juice tastes toasty and round instead of puckery. Squeezed into the hot schmaltz, it becomes an instant pan sauce.
If it goes wrong: the potatoes are still pale
Spread them into one layer so every piece touches the pan and give them a few more minutes. The chicken is happy resting under the foil a little longer.
Squeeze, taste, then fix
For each chicken
Squeeze the charred lemons over the potatoes and into the pan juices, holding them cut side up in the tongs to catch the seeds, and toss. Taste a potato with a little of the pan juices. Aim for crackly edges, a fluffy middle and lemon that tastes toasty, not sharp. If it tastes flat, season with flaky sea salt and black pepper to taste.
Carve, spoon and serve
For the whole recipe
Carve the rested chicken and serve it with the potatoes as 4 servings, spooning the salsa verde over everything. Refrigerate leftovers within two hours and reheat them to 165°F (74°C). Pick the leftover meat off the carcass, then bag the bones and freeze them for unsalted roasted chicken stock.
House call: the carcass goes in the freezer
The roasted bones are the start of the unsalted roasted chicken stock we use as the savory base across this kitchen. Keep a bag in the freezer and add each carcass until you have enough for a pot.
Make it yours: from safe to wild
Safe: tuck halved shallots in with the potatoes so they go jammy in the fat. Bolder: swap the salsa verde for a fish sauce, lime and chili dressing. Wild: after the overnight dry, rub the bird with harissa butter just before it goes in the oven.
About this recipe
Why it works
Lemon, garlic and herbs in the cavity perfume the meat from inside while butter on the skin helps it brown. Turning the potatoes in the pan juices and crisping them at high heat while the chicken rests means both are ready together.
Associated with
British (Sunday roast), cooked widely
The Sunday roast of meat with potatoes and vegetables is a British tradition that spread across the English-speaking world, and chicken is one of its typical meats.
Taste
- Sweet
- Sour
- Salty
- Bitter
- Savory
- Heat
Lemon, roasted garlic, rosemary and bay through the meat and potatoes. · crisp, buttery skin, juicy meat, crisp roast potatoes · hot
Skill level
Some practice
One tin, but timing a whole bird and checking it in the right places takes some care.
Occasions
Sunday roast
Roast chicken with potatoes is one of the typical Sunday-roast meals in Britain and across the English-speaking world.
Serving and keeping
Best served: After the chicken has rested and the potatoes are crisp Carved on a platter with the potatoes and lemon wedges
Make ahead: Keep the raw chicken refrigerated until it goes in the oven.
Storage: Refrigerate within 2 hours (1 hour above 90 °F / 32 °C); take the meat off the bones for faster cooling. Cooked chicken pieces freeze for about 2 to 3 months for best quality.
Leftovers: The potatoes soften in the refrigerator; reheat them in a hot oven.
Food safety
- Check the thigh and breast with a food thermometer for 165 °F (74 °C), avoiding bone.
- The lemon, herbs and garlic in the cavity have touched raw chicken; discard them when you carve.
- Do not rinse the raw chicken; keep it and its juices away from ready-to-eat food, and wash hands, boards and surfaces after handling it.
- Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours, or 1 hour above 90 °F (32 °C).
We make no statement about cross-contact in your kitchen or in packaged ingredients. Check the oil and butter labels.
Nutrition notes
The chicken supplies most of the protein.
The butter and chicken skin carry most of the saturated fat; using oil instead of butter and serving the meat without skin lowers it.
For your food tracker
Fields for MyFitnessPal and other trackers
- Recipe url
- https://isthebestrecipe.com/chicken/lemon-garlic-roast-chicken-and-potatoes
- Name
- Charred-Lemon Chicken with Schmaltz Potatoes
- Servings
- 4
- Recipe yield
- 4 servings
- Recipe ingredient
- about 4 lb whole chicken ready to cook, giblets removed, 2 tbsp kosher salt divided, 1 tsp baking powder, 12 cups water, 1/2 tsp baking soda, about 3 1/4 lb peeled potatoes Yukon Gold or russet, cut into 2-inch chunks, 2 tbsp sunflower oil, 1 whole garlic head cut across the middle, 1 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves and tender stems, finely chopped, 2 tbsp capers rinsed and chopped, 1 clove garlic finely grated, 1 whole lemon finely grated zest and juice, 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, 2 whole lemons halved crosswise, to taste flaky sea salt and black pepper
- Copy action wording
- Copy recipe and estimated nutrition
Make it the best
Copy this recipe and make it your own. Change amounts, swap ingredients, rewrite steps. The original stays as it is.
Nutrition Values
Nutrition estimates aren’t available for this recipe yet.
Your notes
Kept on this device.Return: https://isthebestrecipe.com/chicken/lemon-garlic-roast-chicken-and-potatoes