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Plan Z Phase: This is a Z2 (ZReduction) recipe. When you are in the ZReduction portion of Plan Z you will not be eating the skin of the chicken or any of the dark meat. Breast meat only! But if you have a family, they can eat the rest and keep you from being tempted to gnaw on a leg or a thigh. The only difference between Z2 and Z3 with this recipe is the cut you can eat. Otherwise, the Z2 folks can even have a bit of gravy.

Servings: Serving size 6 – 8 oz of breast meat – One chicken will serve 3 – 4

Ingredients: 

• 1 whole chicken (3 – 4 lbs)
• 2 lemons, each cut in half
• 1 Tbl of your favorite dried herb or meat rub mixture. If you like a lot of seasoning, you can use more (up to 3 Tbl). If you use a lot, make sure there’s no salt in your spice blend or your chicken will be salty!
• salt and pepper
• 4 Tbl of cream
• olive oil spray

Instructions:

Remove the giblets from the chicken and toss or reserve for another use. Rinse out the chicken. Place one of the lemons inside the chicken cavity. Just push the pieces in. Put your chicken in an oven-proof pan. I use cast iron.

Squeeze the other lemon on top of the chicken and let it drizzle down.

Then lightly spray with olive oil and sprinkle (or rub) on your herb mixture.

Roast in your oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Then turn down and roast at 325 until it registers 170 degrees or higher on your meat thermometer. The rule of thumb is about 30 minutes per pound to cook it all the way through.

Let the chicken sit outside the oven in the pan for 10 minutes before carving.

Once you take out the chicken, you can make a bit of gravy with the drippings. Keep in mind the drippings are fat from the chicken so if you are on Z2, don’t eat more than 1 – 2 Tbl of the gravy.

For the gravy:

Remove the chicken from the juices and pour into a small saucepan adding 4Tbl of cream. Heat on medium-low. Be sure the pan can handle the heat of the stove or put it in another pan that can. Stir often until slightly thickened. This will make a lemon cream gravy. It’s wonderful. You never need flour to make gravy. Forget that forever. Just use cream. It will thicken so you don’t need flour. If you continue to heat it, the cream will thicken even more so either take it off the heat or add water or chicken broth to thin it out.

When on Z2, also remember this will eat up part of your cream allotment for the day.

Enjoy!

Cheers,