Description

This chicken dish is excellent. It is easy to make, it's rich and moist on the inside and crisp on the outside. The bread is crisp and full of flavor like the chicken and is much like a stuffing at Thanksgiving time. If you don't feel like making a turkey

Ingredients

• 4 1/2 lb. whole chicken
• salt, to taste
• black pepper, to taste
• 1 lemon, halved
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled, optional
• 1 bunch fresh thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 T. olive oil, or as needed, divided
• 3 thick slices day-old sourdough French bread, each at least 1 inch thick
• 1 T. olive oil
• 1 c. creme fraiche
• 1 T. peeled and grated shallot
• 1 t. Aleppo pepper (spice)
• lemon juice, to taste
• 1 t. lemon zest
• 3 chive blossoms for garnish, chopped, optional

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Wash chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Season inside of chicken cavity and the back generously with salt and pepper. Squeeze the juice of lemon halves into cavity, then drop squeezed peels inside. Stuff cavity with garlic cloves and fresh thyme; add a bay leaf to cavity.
3. Drizzle 1 T. olive oil into a heavy roasting pan; place sourdough slices into pan; press slices lightly into olive oil to help coat bottom of bread; drizzle 1 more T. olive oil on top of bread slices. Place chicken on top of bread slices; tie legs together with kitchen twine. Brush outside of chicken with 1 T. olive oil; season entire outside with salt.