The summer after 7th grade, my family spent a month’s vacation in Fano, an Italian town on the Adriatic. This was decided because the summer before 7th grade, my father had quite literally made himself ill from overwork and stress, spending every day of his vacation on the phone. My mother insisted that we go far enough away that no one would call him. (Of course these days, you’d have to go somewhere much farther, much more remote than Fano!)

It was truly a magical trip. In the days before Airbnb and Vrbo, there was the Vacation Exchange Club. The premise was that your family and another family would trade houses for an agreed upon time. There was a physical book to review the homes available, some of which were simply for rent, when the owner didn’t want to trade. This is how we found a home up in the hills above Fano that we rented for the entire month of July, along with a rental tomato red Fiat to explore the area.

Our days fell into a happy routine. Once we got ourselves going in the morning we would drive down to the daily market to buy food for the day. Settling into the Italian pace of life, we headed back up the hill to have a full lunch (with wine for my parents!) and a riposo, before heading back down the hill to the beach for an afternoon of swimming, sunning, and cool treats, usually gelato or chunks of coconut from the man who walked up and down the beach with a huge basket yelling “Coco Bello!” Then, as the sun started to head behind the Apennines, salty and sandy, we would drive back to the house to shower before dinner.

On one side of the market square was a rosticceria, and occasionally we would buy a roasted chicken there for dinner. Imagine our surprise that first time we brought one back to our rental villa and discovered the chicken was stuffed full of pine needles! It was so delicious that we continued to enjoy this several more times during our month on the Adriatic.

But, of course, they weren’t pine needles. Back then, the typical American pantry was very different than it is today, and none of us were familiar with rosemary. (See the photo of my diary from the trip, when the owners of the house we rented laughed when we said the chicken was stuffed with pine needles!) I have thought of that chicken so many times, but never have had enough rosemary to stuff a chicken entirely with it – until the other day. I was fortunate to find myself with a huge amount of rosemary that a friend could not use, so I went and bought a whole chicken.

I wish we had a rotisserie over an open fire, but we don’t, so I had to cook it in the traditional method of a roast chicken. We loved the flavor of rosemary nonetheless as it perfumed the meat throughout, and, for me, it was one of those moments for a happy food memory from my childhood.

I’ve posted before about a simple roast chicken, so what follows is somewhat of a repeat, with some thoughts about the rosemary stuffing.

Roast Chicken Stuffed with Rosemary

Serves 4

1 whole chicken, about 3½ pounds
Salt
Fresh ground pepper
2 lemon slices, cut thick
1-2 garlic cloves cut in large pieces
2-3 cups rosemary leaves
1 Tablespoon olive oil
6-8 onion wedges, optional

Preheat the oven to 425°F.

Put the chicken breast side up in a roasting pan or glass baking dish. (Note that if you use a glass baking dish, you can’t make the gravy recipe linked below.)

Sprinkle a generous pinch each of salt and pepper into the cavity of the chicken. Place the lemon slices and garlic pieces in the chicken, then stuff as much rosemary as you can into the cavity until it is full. (You should have some left over.) Chop about 1-2 Tablespoons of the remaining rosemary. Drizzle the olive oil over the whole chicken, and sprinkle with the chopped rosemary and another generous pinch each of salt and pepper. If using onion wedges, drizzle a bit of olive oil on the bottom of the pan in places where you put the onion.

Place the chicken in the oven and roast at 425°F for 30 minutes. Then turn the oven down to 350°F and continue to roast for about 20 minutes per pound total (including the 30 minutes at the beginning), or until the internal temperature reaches 165°F on an instant read thermometer. This should be about an hour and 10-20 minutes for a 3½ pound chicken.

Remove from the oven and allow to sit for a few minutes before carving. If you are making gravy, remove the chicken to a cutting board (and, if using, the onions to a plate) and follow the recipe here (at the bottom of this Thanksgiving post) to make a cider gravy with the pan drippings, which goes nicely with the rosemary flavor.

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Chicken Stuffed with Rosemary