Lemon Garlic Pepper Chicken

http://almostbourdain.blogspot.com/2010/05/pepper-roasted-garlic-and-lemon-chicken.html

It's not easy to make dinner by a sick person like me.  I needed to find the easiest way to make a quick dinner yet appealing to the little bosses at home.  After my doctor appointment, I went to look for ideas from the Chinese grocery store.  At first I wanted to make wonton, no, too much work, not a good idea for a sick person to wrap them either.  Then I saw the free run chicken which reminded me a recipe I saw on Tastespotting.  I decided to give it a try.

Oops, I got home and realized I had forgotten to buy garlic, one of the important ingredients.  Since Ho was stuck in the house for the whole day, I asked him to drive out and get them.  When he handed me the garlic, I asked him, "Are we also catching a vampire tonight?"  He bought so many!  I asked for 2 bulbs and he got me two bags!

He dropped off the garlic and drove out for a coffee.  He's a person who hates the feeling of getting stuck in one place.  I went on to separate the garlic with the help of a knife.  Ouch!  I cut my fingers, two of them, first time in my cooking life had I ever cut my hand!  The blood was pumping out.  I asked Adrian to call daddy.  He dialed the wrong number!  Some lady picked up the phone and Adrian just yelled, "Mommy cut her hand!"  The lady kept saying, "What?  What?"  She must be thinking, "Should I call the police for the kid?"  Then I told Adrian to tell her he had dialed the wrong number.  Now it's Adrian's turn to ask me, "What? What?"  While pressing on my fingers under water to clean and stop the bleeding, I could only tell him to hang up.  Finally he called daddy's cell phone.   Ho drove back to help me with the wound.  Then he helped me stuffed the chicken and tied it out.

Livie saw us tying the chicken.  She said, "What are you doing with the yarn?"  Ho explained that the string was used to hold the chicken and avoid the stuffing from spilling out, and we would roast the chicken with it.  Then she said, "This is our first time eating yarn..."  She is so cute.

The chicken turned out to be a great success.  The skin was crispy, meat was juicy.  Only the backbone part was a little rare.  The juice was flavourful.  We dipped the chicken breast in the juice.  It's not tough at all.  Adrian couldn't get enough of it.  I roasted it at 390F.  I may do it 395F next time just to get the back bone part cooked.  It's just so little that I think 5F should do it.  I also reduced the black pepper to 1 tbsp only because the kids will find it too spicy.  Actually 1 tbsp is too much for them to eat the skin.  Without the skin, the taste was just right.  I'll definitely make this again.