Herb crusted half chickens layered over sliced lemons and whole garlic. Roasted till golden brown and served with roasted potatoes and a buttery lemon-marsala pan sauce.

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I love serving chicken by the halfs . I don’t know what it is but everyone seems to be in shock and awe when they are served one. As long as you can cook a whole chicken, you can definitely cook a half. Half chickens are super easy to do you just remove the spin then split the breast. Two cuts and you have your super impressive dinner. I think it’s something about having both white and dark meat served that people enjoy. Also once the chicken is cooked you can serve it cut up into sections or the whole thing. Splitting your chicken doesn’t just help the presentation it also cuts down the cooking time and it allows for you to season more of the chicken especially under the skin. For this recipe I was in the mood for classic roasted lemon chicken and potatoes. Something about both the chicken and the potatoes being crispy and tender while swimming in a pool of a lemon marsala butter sauce just screams comfort to me . Check out my tips and tricks below for the best lemon-marsala chicken. Try this recipe out and let me know what you think.

TIPS & TRICKS FOR THE BEST LEMON-MARSALA CHICKEN:

oil and lemon before seasoning: before you put the herb crust on your chicken you want to remember to drizzle on the olive and squeeze on the lemon juice before you season. that way you dont wash off the herb crust.

pour the marsala next to chicken: similar to why you drizzle olive oil and lemon before you season pour the marsala wine in the corner of the pan, last once everything is done that way you dont have to worry about it washing the entire coating off

clean it up: when you remove the spine from the chicken make sure once you split it down the breast that you flip it back over and remove some of the broken ribs and anything else that may be a harmful surpise to someone. to remove the ribs you should be able to use your finger to bring it up from the skin and use your pairing knife to separate. just trim and clean where you see fit.

leave your garlic whole: for this recipe i just throw the garlic right in. i love to keep it in tact and mash it in bites or spread it over crusty bread. this chicken cooks for a while only under the chicken so it may not be all that brown but it will sweeten and tame in time.

remove some seeds: for this dish i used a lot of lemons. so to avoid everyone choking and to just make the dish more enjoyable i removed as many lemon seeds as i could ahead of time with my pairing knife. the easiest way i found was slicing them then removing the seeds. its alot easier to do it first or else you’ll be fishing them out of a cooked dish.

SIMILAR INGREDIENTS TO:

1. ROASTED LEMON CHICKEN SPAGHETTI & HERB CROUTONS
2. ROASTED CHICKEN SPAGHETTI
3. YOGURT LEMON CHICKEN W/ CILANTRO OIL

ENJOY THIS RECIPE WITH:

1. LEMON SUNFLOWER DRESSING
2. PAN AU CHOCOLAT BREAD PUDDING
3. CRISPY SALT AND VINEGAR SEASONED HOMEFRIES

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 Whole Chickens, halved
• 5 Lemons, sliced
• 15 Garlic Cloves, whole
• 1/2c Marsala Wine
• 1/2c Butter, sliced
• 1Tb Oregano
• Salt
• 1Tb Black Pepper
• 1Tb Rosemary, dried
• 1Tb Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
• 1Tb Garlic Powder
• Olive Oil

ROASTED POTATOES

• 2Tb Olive oil
• 1Tb Butter
• 3 Russett Potatoes, thick sliced
• 5 Garlic Cloves, sliced
• 1tsp Rosemary, fresh + chopped
• 1tsp Thyme, fresh + chopped
• 1tsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
• Salt
• Black Pepper

DIRECTIONS:

• BOTTOM LAYER: Place sliced lemons and garlic and the bottom of the pan.Place chicken over the top.
• SEASON CHICKEN: Coat chicken in olive oil and lemon juice. Season chicken generously on both sides with oregano, black pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, garlic powder and salt.
• ADD MARSALA AND BUTTER: Add marsala to the bottom of the pan enough cover the bottom of the pan. Place pat of butter over the top of the chicken and the bottom of the pan.
• PREP POTATOES: In a separate bowl add all ingredients under roasted potatoes together and toss till thoroughly combined. Place on a parchment liner baking sheet and roast with the chicken till for tender.
• ROAST: Place pan with lemon marsala in a 400F preheated oven at the top. Place the potatoes at the bottom of the oven roast for and hour and fifteen minutes.
• SERVE: Place the potatoes on a plate, top with half chickens and top with roasted lemons and garlic. Top with pan sauce.