Roast Capon with Lemon and Thyme
From darbar 16 years ago
- 135 minutes to make
- Serves 8
Moist, lemony and fabulous! This really delivers on the lemon flavor, both in the meat and the gravy. The finished bird looks amazing on the platter with the thyme sprigs and roasted lemon.
Ingredients
- 1 (8-lb) capon or roasting chicken shopping list
- 3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened shopping list
- 1 tablespoon finely grated fresh lemon zest shopping list
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme shopping list
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt shopping list
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper shopping list
- 4 whole lemons, quartered lengthwise shopping list
- 1 cup water shopping list
- 2 teaspoons red-currant jelly shopping list
- Special equipment: kitchen string; an instant-read thermometer shopping list
- Garnish: fresh flat-leaf parsley and thyme sprigs shopping list
How to make it
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Rinse capon inside and out and discard any excess fat from cavity. Pat capon dry and season cavity with salt and pepper. Put in a large roasting pan and let stand at room temperature 20 minutes.
- While capon is standing, stir together butter, zest, thyme, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.
- Turn capon so neck cavity is nearest you. To loosen breast skin, lift neck flap and work your fingers gently between skin and flesh, being careful not to tear skin. Slide your fingers down breast and along both sides all the way to thighs. Put half of butter mixture evenly under skin of each breast, then rub outside of capon to distribute evenly.
- Place 6 lemon wedges in cavity of bird and tie legs together with string.
- Roast capon in middle of oven, basting with pan juices every 30 minutes, 1 1/2 hours. Skim most of fat from pan, then add remaining 10 lemon wedges to pan, tossing with pan juices. Continue roasting capon, basting every 15 minutes, until thermometer inserted 2 inches into fleshy part of a thigh (do not touch bone) registers 170°F, about 45 minutes more.
- Tilt capon in pan to pour out juices in cavity, then transfer capon and lemon wedges to a carving platter and let stand 20 to 30 minutes before carving. Do not clean pan.
- Skim fat from pan juices and straddle roasting pan across 2 burners. Add water and jelly and deglaze pan by boiling over moderately high heat, stirring and scraping up brown bits, 1 minute. Continue to boil, stirring occasionally, until reduced to about 1 cup, about 5 minutes. Season sauce with salt and pepper, then pour through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl.
- Carve capon and serve with sauce.
People Who Like This Dish 7
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- bondc State College, PA
- darbar Brevard, NC
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The Rating
Reviewed by 4 people-
This is a wonderful recipe for a Sunday dinner, Must cook this one. Thanks
pudgy47
in Las Vegas loved it
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Very good recipe----Chicken was full of flavor lots of lemon. BRAVO
pudgy47
in Las Vegas loved it
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in Somewhere loved it
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