Recipe: Lemon-Herb Roast Chicken

LEMON-HERB ROAST CHICKEN

"Try this juicy, delicately flavored roast chicken for a Sunday dinner treat."

Vegetable oil spray
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon dried basil, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 (4 to 4 1/2)-pound roasting chicken
2 medium cloves garlic, minced, or 1 teaspoon bottled minced garlic
1 lemon, cut into wedges
1 bay leaf
1/2 medium onion
1/2 cup dry white wine (regular or nonalcoholic)
Vegetable oil spray

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray roasting pan and rack with vegetable oil spray.

Combine thyme, basil, pepper, and salt.

Remove giblets and neck from chicken and save for other use or discard. Rinse chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Rub outside of chicken with herb mixture. Put chicken breast side up on rack in roasting pan.

Put garlic, lemon, bay leaf, and onion in chicken, then pour in wine.

Lightly spray outside of chicken with vegetable oil spray.

Roast for about 20 minutes per pound, or until juices run clear when you pierce a thigh with a sharp skewer or a meat thermometer registers 180 F when you insert it in thigh. Remove from oven and let rest for 15 minutes before carving. Remove skin before serving chicken.

TIME-SAVER:
Make a double recipe and have extra chicken to use during the week in other recipes.

Serves 6
From the Hardcover edition.
Excerpted from The New American Heart Association Cookbook by American Heart Association
Excerpted by permission of Clarkson Potter, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.