- 1 chicken (approx. 3½ to 4 pounds), cut into 10 pieces
- 1 head garlic, separated into unpeeled cloves
- 2 unwaxed lemons, cut into chunky eighths
- Small handful fresh thyme
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 10 tablespoons white wine
- Black pepper
- Preheat the oven to 300°F.
- Put the chicken pieces into a roasting pan and add the garlic cloves, lemon chunks and the thyme; just roughly pull the leaves off the stalks, leaving some intact for strewing over later. Add the oil and using your hands mix everything together, then spread the mixture out, making sure all the chicken pieces are skin-side up.
- Sprinkle over the white wine and grind on some pepper, then cover tightly with foil and put in the oven to cook, at flavor-intensifyingly low heat, for 2 hours.
- Remove the foil from the roasting pan, and turn up the oven to 400°F. Cook the uncovered chicken for another 30–45 minutes, by which time the skin on the meat will have turned golden brown and the lemons will have begun to scorch and caramelize at the edges.
- I like to serve this as it is, straight from the roasting pan: so just strew with your remaining thyme and dole out.