Roasted Chicken with Fennel and Lemon

Ingredients

• 1 cup wine dry white
• 1 large fennel bulb trimmed cut into 8 wedges, plus some of the fronds
• 2 sprigs marjoram fresh
• 2  garlic clove minced smashed
• 4 servings gravy 
• 1  optional: lemon cut in half
• 1 tablespoon olive oil divided
• 1 tablespoon oregano fresh chopped
• 0.3 teaspoon pepper freshly ground
• 4 pound roasting chickens whole
• 0.5 teaspoon sea salt 

Equipment

• bowl
• frying pan
• oven
• roasting pan
• kitchen thermometer
• ziploc bags

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 40
2. Rinse chicken inside and out, removing all inside parts; cut off any excess fat, and pat dry.
3. Combine chopped oregano, marjoram, minced garlic, and 1 teaspoon olive oil in a small bowl.
4. Place chicken in a large roasting pan on a roasting rack, breast side up. Starting at neck cavity, loosen skin from breast and drumsticks by inserting fingers and gently pushing between the skin and meat.
5. Place oregano mixture beneath skin on breasts and drumsticks.
6. Pour wine over chicken and into the pan. Rub the inside cavity of chicken with lemon, squeezing juice over and around outside of chicken.
7. Place lemon halves, 2 fennel pieces, smashed garlic cloves, and sprig of oregano in cavity of chicken.
8. Add 1 cup water to pan.
9. Add remaining fennel and fronds to bottom of pan.
10. Pour remaining 2 teaspoons olive oil over breast, and add salt and pepper.
11. Insert meat thermometer into meaty part of thigh, making sure not to touch bone. Roast at 400 for 1 hour or until thermometer registers 175, basting every 20 minutes with pan liquid.
12. Remove chicken from oven, and let rest 15 minutes.
13. Transfer chicken to a serving platter.
14. Place a zip-top plastic bag inside a 2-cup glass measure.
15. Pour drippings from pan into bag; let stand 10 minutes. (Fat will rise to top.) Seal bag, and carefully snip off a bottom corner of bag.
16. Drain drippings into a small bowl, stopping before fat layer reaches opening; discard fat. Reserve drippings for Herb Pan Gravy.
17. Serve chicken, fennel, and lemons with Herb Pan Gravy.