By I turned sixty-eight today. January eighteenth. I woke up in the dark at my usual time — four-thirty, a farmer's schedule that persists even when there's no farming happening — and lay there for a moment thinking about the number. Sixty-eight. My father was sixty-nine when his heart failed him. I've been carrying that number for thirty years as a kind of marker, and here I am, one year from it, in good health as far as I can tell, with a property that needs me and a family that calls.
Sarah called at eight o'clock sharp. She has called at eight on my birthday every year since she left home, because eight was when I was born, on a January morning in Vermont not unlike this one. She said: happy birthday, Dad. I said: thank you. Neither of us said the other thing, which is that this is the third birthday since Helen died, and every birthday now has a space in it that used to be filled by Helen singing something offkey in the kitchen. We both know. We don't need to say it.
Carol drove over in the afternoon and we had a birthday dinner. I made the things I wanted: a proper roast chicken with herbs from the dried bunches over the stove, roasted potatoes, a green salad with my own apple cider vinegar dressing. Deliberately unassuming. A birthday dinner doesn't have to be impressive; it has to be right. Carol brought a pie from the Stowe bakery — apple, which she knows is my preference — and we ate a good portion of it and left the rest for tomorrow.
Teddy called at four in the afternoon, on his own, for the second birthday in a row. He said: happy birthday, grampa, sixty-eight. I said: you're doing the math. He said: we learned about this stuff in bio. Genetics and all that. I said: is that so. He said: you look good for sixty-eight. I said: thank you, Teddy. He said: we're still doing Saturday lessons, right? I said: we're always doing Saturday lessons. He seemed satisfied with that and hung up.
I’ve made variations of this chicken more times than I can count, and on a birthday — especially one that carries the weight this one did — it felt exactly right to come back to it. There’s something about the brightness of lemon and lime against the earthiness of a good roast that cuts through the quiet of an afternoon like this one, when you’re cooking for yourself and one good guest and trying not to let the empty chair take up too much of the room. Carol brought the pie; I brought the chicken. That’s a decent division of labor for sixty-eight.
Lemon-Lime Chicken
Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 1 hr 15 min | Total Time: 1 hr 30 min | Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken (3 1/2 to 4 lbs)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 lemon, zested and halved
- 1 lime, zested and halved
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves (or 1 teaspoon dried)
- 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped (or 1 teaspoon dried)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
Instructions
- Preheat the oven. Heat oven to 425°F. Pat the chicken dry inside and out with paper towels and set it breast-side up in a roasting pan or cast iron skillet.
- Make the herb rub. In a small bowl, combine the olive oil, lemon zest, lime zest, minced garlic, thyme, rosemary, salt, pepper, and paprika. Mix in the softened butter until a rough paste forms.
- Season the chicken. Loosen the skin over the breast and thighs and rub half the herb butter directly onto the meat beneath the skin. Rub the remaining butter all over the outside of the bird. Squeeze the lemon and lime halves over the top, then stuff the spent citrus halves into the cavity.
- Roast. Roast uncovered for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, until the juices run clear when you pierce the thigh and an instant-read thermometer registers 165°F in the thickest part of the thigh. If the skin browns too quickly, tent loosely with foil.
- Rest before carving. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board and let it rest for 10 minutes before carving. This keeps the juices where they belong.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 420 | Protein: 38g | Fat: 28g | Carbs: 4g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 480mg