Another Easy Roast Chicken: We unite Ina Garten and Meredith Grey

Every Thursday I take part in a ritual I'm slightly mortified to be a participant of.  Obviously not enough to be including this detail of my life on a blog.  My friends and I unite for a delicious homemade feast (usually using ingredients from the CSA, not so much these days) then gather around to watch Grey's Anatomy.  Don't judge.  There are a handful (ok, a dozen) shows I compulsively watch.  I've watched it since college and it's just something I have to hold on to.  Whatever, I don't have to explain myself to you.

From pretty much my favorite episode when Meredith lights all the candles and is all like  "Because I believe that we can be extraordinary together rather than ordinary apart ".  Weeeeep.

I digress.

This week I was short on time, and not feeling very creative.  So, I give you, my version of Ina Garten's Roasted Engagement Chicken.  It's actually exactly the same, but I promised Bortz I'd post it for her:

Roast Chicken
Serves 4

1 (4 to 5 pound) roasting chicken
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 lemons
1 whole head garlic, cut in 1/2 crosswise
Good olive oil
2 Spanish onions, peeled and thickly sliced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken stock, preferably homemade
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 425F.

Remove the gross bag inside the chicken.  Okay, it's not that gross, but not everyone enjoys organ meat.  I for one like to saute up the chicken liver.  So now you know. I like Grey's Anatomy and chicken livers.

Pat the chicken dry.  This is so you can achieve a nice, crispy brown skin.  No one likes a soggy chicken.  Salt and pepper the inside cavity.

Cut the lemons into quarters and stuff the cavity with the 2 quarters of a lemon and all of the garlic (it doesn't matter if it's not peeled).  Truss.  Tuck the wings under so they don't burn.  Rub olive oil all over it's body.  Place in a roasting pan.

In a bowl toss together the onion and the rest of the lemons in olive oil.  Salt and pepper. Arrange around the chicken.  Make sure it's all kind of snug in there.  If the pan is too big, the onions may burn.

Roast the chicken for about 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the thermometer reads 165F on the thickest part of the chicken.  Or the leg is easily twisted in its socket.  That's an old culinary school trick.

Move the chicken to a platter and tent.  Transfer the roasting pan to the stove.  Deglaze with the wine, scraping up all the good stuff...and bits you don't want to scrub later.  Add the stock and flour.  Stir until it thickens.  Transfer any juices from the platter into the sauce.  Spoon over chicken and enjoy.