Make an Easy Roast Chicken With Lemons Recipe | Marcella Hazan | American Masters | PBS

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One of Marcella Hazan’s most famous recipes is a simple roast chicken with lemons. Watch chef Shola Olunloyo demonstrate the delicious dish.

“American Masters – Marcella” premiered nationwide Friday, July 11 at 10 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings) and is now streaming on pbs.org/americanmasters and the PBS App. Discover how celebrated cookbook writer Marcella Hazan shaped Italian cuisine in America. Features interviews with Jacques Pépin, Danny Meyer, Lidia Bastianich, Hazan’s widower and writing partner Victor Hazan, and their son Giuliano Hazan.

FULL RECIPE (For 4 servings):

A 3- to 4-pound chicken
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
2 rather small lemons

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Wash the chicken thoroughly in cold water, both inside and out. Remove all the bits of fat hanging loose. Let the bird sit for about 10 minutes on a slightly tilted plate to let all the water drain out of it. Pat it thoroughly dry all over with cloth or paper towels.

3. Sprinkle a generous amount of salt and black pepper on the chicken, rubbing it with your fingers over all its body and into its cavity.
4. Wash the lemons in cold water and dry them with a towel. Soften each lemon by placing it on a counter and rolling it back and forth as you put firm downward pressure on it with the palm of your hand. Puncture the lemons in at least 20 places each, using a sturdy round toothpick, a trussing needle, a sharp-pointed fork, or similar implement.

5. Place both lemons in the bird’s cavity. Close up the opening with toothpicks or with trussing needle and string. Close it well, but don’t make an absolutely airtight job of it because the chicken may burst. Run kitchen string from one leg to the other, tying it at both knuckle ends. Leave the legs in their natural position without pulling them tight. If the skin is unbroken, the chicken will puff up as it cooks, and the string serves only to keep the thighs from spreading apart and splitting the skin.

6. Put the chicken into a roasting pan, breast facing down. Do not add cooking fat of any kind. This bird is self-basting, so you need not fear it will stick to the pan. Place it in the upper third of the preheated oven. After 30 minutes, turn the chicken over to have the breast face up. When turning it, try not to puncture the skin. If kept intact, the chicken will swell like a balloon, which makes for an arresting presentation at the table later. Do not worry too much about it, however, because even if it fails to swell, the flavor will not be affected.

7. Cook for another 30 to 35 minutes, then turn the oven thermostat up to 400°, and cook for an additional 20 minutes. Calculate between 20 and 25 minutes’ total cooking time for each pound. There is no need to turn the chicken again.

8. Whether your bird has puffed up or not, bring it to the table whole and leave the lemons inside until it is carved and opened. The juices that run out are perfectly delicious. Be sure to spoon them over the chicken slices. The lemons will have shriveled up, but they still contain some juice; do not squeeze them, they may squirt.

From Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: 30th Anniversary Edition by Marcella Hazan. Copyright © 1992 by Marcella Hazan. Foreword copyright © 2022 by Victor Hazan. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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– I’m gonna make Marcella’s
chicken with two lemons, which is almost like a bit of poetry, because it’s three-to-four pound chicken, salt, pepper, lemons. I don’t know of a recipe
that’s simpler than this that certainly delivers
as much flavor impact. It’s so straightforward and elemental. But the first thing is the chicken is only seasoned with salt and pepper. It is seasoned generously. Plus also the inside of the cavity. I’ll do the same with the pepper. I’ll take to take two lemons. I’m gonna take off my gloves for this. And the lemons have to be
perforated substantially. You can do this with a fork. Insert lemon into chicken. You should be able to
get the second one in. Use the toothpick to also seal the front part of the chicken here. Keeping the legs together also helps too. And that is all the prep. The chicken is cooked initially
with the breast side down for 30 minutes, 350 degrees. (bell chiming) And once you’re sure it’s not
stuck, then we flip it over. It goes back into the oven
at the same temperature for another 30 minutes. (bell chiming) Complete the process with a 20
minute roast at 400 degrees. (bell chiming) And that looks like a
perfectly golden brown chicken that’s not too burned or too caramelized. This is by far the dish I
have shared most with people. Not to show what I can do,
but to show what they can do, and that’s what’s important. – [Bryant] Even I can do this one right? – And we all live to her
spirit and her memory, and sort of pass that
knowledge onto other people. Marcella Polini Hazan. – And you can see that
this page is just a mess. This was the lemon chicken that I made, and suddenly everybody I know made. It was just the most amazing thing, and I just could not believe
this thing was gonna work. And you did, and it was the most dramatic thing in the world. The essence of this stuff. Wait, there’s just two
or three ingredients. How did this turn out this way? – I remember that was
probably the first thing I ever cooked of hers,
and it gives you something that you have through
the rest of your life. Stuff the lemons in the chicken. You’ve got dinner. (bright orchestral music)