Stunning Men and A Home-Cooked Classic

You know what I found today? This. Needless to say, a good bit of my afternoon and evening went to trying to ask Jensen Ackles questions he would actually answer publicly. Out of the three I submitted, he answered one. Apparently most of my inquiries are just too personal/creepy/not okay to be acknowledged. I have no hard feelings though. It's very difficult to be upset with someone so beautiful. Emma laughed at my new-found stalking hobby but, not having ever seen Supernatural, questioned whether Jensen could really live up to the gorgeousness of Ian Somerhalder; I have no answer for this. I have no answer for anything right now, as I have spent the past 20 minutes looking through pictures of these two and have drifted off to a happier place where Jensen and Ian and I sit around sipping coffee and doing crosswords together. Mmmmm.

Oh

uh

food?

That's why we're here? Huh. Okay.

Roast Chicken with Lemon, Rosemary, and Honey
Adapted from bonappetit.com.

1 2-4 lb chicken
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbsp honey
2 lemon
1/2 lb shallots, peeled
fresh rosemary sprigs (at least 1 large bunch)
salt
pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line your roasting/baking pan with rosemary sprigs. Set aside.

Whisk oil, honey, and most of the juice of 1 lemon in a small bowl.

Open/rinse/remove giblets/neck from your chicken. Now, beginning at the neck, use your fingers to go between the breast meat and the skin to loosen said skin. Pour about 1/2 of your oil mixture on the breast meat (in the space you just created) and try to spread it evenly around as best you can. Spread the rest of it evenly over the rest of the chicken. Set chicken on top of the bed of rosemary you've prepared.

Slice your second lemon in half. Place 1 of those halves and 1 whole, peeled shallot in the cavity of the chicken. Stuff the rest of the rosemary in there too. Season the chicken all over with salt and pepper.

Cut the other half of that lemon into slices and place those on top of the chicken. Place the rest of the shallots in the baking dish around the chicken.

Roast the chicken, basting as often as you reasonably can (maybe once every 10-15 minutes?), for 45 minutes. Increase over temp to 425 F and roast for another 10-ish minutes, until a thermometer stuck into the thickest part of the thigh reads 165 F and the skin looks delicious.

Remove from oven. Enjoy.

Notes

• This recipe was originally doubled (IE: for 2 chickens) so feel free to scale this up as needed. 
• If you don't know where you keep the meat thermometer, you can use the classic method of cutting a slit in the skin between the thigh and the body of the bird and making sure the juices run clear. Also, don't get salmonella. That shit is nasty.
• I couldn't find a baster in Emma's apartment so I just tried to spoon juice over the chicken as much as I could. This is tedious and ineffective, so if you have a baster, use it.
• Keep an eye on things while they are in the oven and cover the chicken in foil if it looks like things are getting too dark.
• The chicken came out moist with a slight hint of lemon in the meat. It was good, but I don't know that I tasted anything all that different than I've tasted in many roasted chickens of yore.
• The shallots are sweet and delicious.

Cost

• I bought a humanely-raised chicken cause I'm a sucker for that shit so that plus the rosemary plus the lemons came to $11. This should last me at least 3 meals so, not too bad.
• Calories are obviously less for the white meat, but on average, about 450 for 1/3 of the bird.

Bonus

Though I am loathe to admit it, someone close to me has done a very accurate and abbreviated version of this post that I will share:

[7:44:50 PM]: I'M POOR OH GOD I HAVE NO MONEY I SUBSTITUTED CHEAPER THINGS I HAVE NO KITCHEN EQUIPMENT I'M JEALOUS OF EMMA'S STAND MIXER CHICKEN CAME OUT OK I HAVE NO FREE TIME THE END