Whole Lemon Chicken
There are a wide variety of whole lemon chicken dishes found all over the world in several cuisines. Not surprisingly, lemon and chicken are the featured ingredients in all these dishes.
In Canada, chicken pieces are usually deep fried and sweet sauce with the flavor of lemon is coated on these pieces. The popular version in Australia is cooked by crumbing large chicken pieces and basting them with some lemon juice. The chicken pieces are then baked in an oven. At times, people in Australia also prefer to coat chicken in the batter, which is further fried and finally covered with the lemon sauce.
Pollo al limone is the Italian version that involves roasting the whole chicken with some freshly squeezed lemon juice, white whine, mirepoix, and fresh thyme. I know that many of you must have had water in your mouth by now, so given below is a quick recipe of a barbecued whole lemon chicken.
Ingredients:
1 chicken (4 lb or 2 kg)
1 small onion, quartered
1/2 lemon
1/2 tablespoon or 2 ml salt
1/2 tablespoon or 2 ml pepper
2 teaspoons or 10 ml lemon rind, grated
1/4 cup or 50 ml lemon juice
1/4 cup or 50 ml vegetable oil
1/2 tablespoon or 2 ml fennel seeds, crushed
Directions: Remove giblets and neck from the chicken and pat it dry inside out. Place the half lemon and onion in the cavity. Sprinkle a pinch of both pepper and salt over the cavity. Now, tuck wings at the back and tie its legs with string. Stir fennel seeds, juice, oil. and lemon rind together. Put the remaining pepper and salt into this mixture and set it aside.
Further, set drip pan foil below one burner of the two burner barbecue. Or you may put in below the centre burner, if yours is a barbecue with three burners. Grease the grill and set chicken on it over the drip pan. Put the burner with the remaining heat to medium.
Brush lemon mixture onto the chicken. Close lid. Let it grill for at least 20 minutes. Brush with the lemon mixture again for around 60 minutes, when the meat registers the temperature of at least 85°C or185°F. Now, transfer the chicken to a platter or cutting board and let it stand for around 10 minutes before you start carving it. Congratulations! Your barbecue whole lemon chicken is ready to serve!
Do not resist the temptation anymore and get going with the hot and tasty chicken. I can almost bet you would be licking your fingers soon after. Watch out!