Lemon-Roasted Chicken with Caramelized Scape Sauce
Yes, I turned on my oven during a heat wave
I can’t recall roasting a whole chicken all winter long, and yet find myself doing it during the hottest week of the summer. I used to purchase a whole chicken every couple of weeks, either roasting it in the oven or simmering it in a bit pot of water and aromatics on the stovetop. If it was roasted, I’d save the bones and make stock the next day, but most often I opted for the simmer in a big pot method. It yields meat for a dinner of poached chicken straight from the pot, or for shredding (snacking, chicken salad), and of course broth. It makes my house smell amazing without having to turn the oven on, but the other night I found myself with a hankering for an oven-roasted chicken. With vegetables roasted in all of that delicious chicken fat that gets rendered during the process. One of those meals that reminds me that cooking is a form of alchemy. Put things together, do very little to them, and they transform each other. The vegetables and aromatics infuse the chicken with flavor, and the fat from the chicken cooks the veggies into a beautiful jammy delicious mess that you can smear on toasty sourdough bread.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Home Cooking Diary to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.