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Lemon Pepper Chicken

This is my second favorite method of cooking a whole chicken...low and slow. This recipe reminds me of the Lemon Pepper Rotiserrie chicken that you get at the local grocery store. This cooking method yields fall off the bone tender chicken.

Ingredients:

• 4 to 5 lb whole roasting chicken
• 2 tbs lemon pepper seasoning
• 1 tbs brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 whole lemon (medium size), use zest from the lemon
• olive oil
• 
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
2. Wash chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Make sure to remove the innards.
3. Rub a little olive oil (about a couple of teaspoons) all over entire chicken.
4. In a small bowl, combine lemon pepper, brown sugar and salt. Zest the entire lemon and place the zest in the bowl, combining well with the other seasoning ingredients. Try to remove as much of the zest that you can without zesting into the white flesh of the lemon. (If the zest is in long strips, chop into short pieces.)
5. Using a little less than half of the seasoning mixture, rub the inside cavity of the chicken. With the remaining seasonings, sprinkle entire outside of the chicken (seasoning the breast last). Place in a roasting pan breast side up. Place the whole lemon that has been zested inside the cavity and tie the legs with kitchen string.
6. Bake uncovered for 3 1/2  to 4 hours, or until the temperature of the chicken reaches 180 degrees. (At about 2 hours into the cooking time, baste the chicken well with the pan juices. Continue to cook uncovered for the final 1.5 to 2 hours.) The chicken should be golden brown at this point.
7. Remove chicken from oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Comments:

- With the long cooking time and cooking the chicken until it reaches an internal temperature of 180 degrees, you will easily be able to pull the wings and legs off the bird. It will also be easy to remove the chicken breasts from the bone.

- If you don't have 3 1/2 to 4 hours to cook the chicken, use my Simply Roast Chicken method by baking on 450 degrees for 15 minutes and then lowering temperature to 400 degrees for another hour until the temperature reads between 170 and 180 degrees.

- I use Jane's Krazy Mixed Up Lemon Pepper or Lawry's Lemon Pepper and felt they are equally good.

Tips:

- Bake two of these at the same time to use for another meal in the week.

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