This roast chicken is adapted from those "sticky chicken" recipes you see on the internet, but I season it differently and make a lemon pan sauce for it while the chicken is resting. This is fall off the bone roast chicken and even with the long roasting time, stays amazingly moist. It's remarkably good at room temperature and makes for great sandwiches the next day. Other times I turn leftovers into chicken soup with rice, lemon and dill and have often made what I call Denny's Tetrazzini (posted on the Food52 website). Since there are only two of us we always have leftovers! (And sometimes I'll roast two at once just to HAVE leftovers!)

Serves 4 to 6

For the rub:

• 2 tablespoons salt
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 2 tablespoons granulated garlic
• 2 teaspoons dried basil
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

Mix all all ingredients together and set aside.

For the chicken:

• 1 4 to 5 pound whole chicken
• 1 lemon, halved
• 2 to 3 tablespoons of the rub mixture
• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 8 to 10 whole peeled garlic cloves

1. Wash and dry the chicken and then rub all over with the juice of both lemon halves, reserving one used half.
2. Rub the chicken with the olive oil.
3. Sprinkle the rub and paprika all over the chicken and pat in a bit.
4. Place the garlic cloves in the cavity, followed by the reserved used lemon half. Cover and refrigerate for one to three hours.
5. Roast the chicken for 5 hours (yep that's right) at 250F (that's right too). After an hour the chicken will start exuding some juice. Tip the chicken to drain the juices from the cavity and baste with a brush. Do this every 45 minutes to an hour while the chicken is roasting.
6. After the 5 hour roasting time, remove the chicken and let it rest while you make a little pan sauce if you like by adding 2 cups chicken broth and a little flour to thicken, scraping up the fond in the bottom of the pan. Sometimes I remove the garlic cloves from the cavity and mash them into the sauce. The sauce is purely optional but is wonderful on the chicken.
7. Note: Any leftover sauce can be thrown into your pot of chicken soup!