This is actually two recipes in one. I'm putting them together because I always cook them together. I guess you could separate them but they'll be lonely and the potatoes may not cook right.

This is company chicken because it makes too much for 2 people (it's pretty much perfect for 4) and is brainless and relatively cheap and needs no minding once it's in the oven. It's for those days that your spouse emails at 4pm to ask "do you mind if Jack and Gwen come over for dinner?" or when you suddenly remember that you promised to cook dinner for friends who were out of town so they didn't have to deal with dishes on their first night back (not that such a thing happened to me, I'm just hypothesizing here) or any other time you are suddenly need to put a nice dinner on the table with no forethought. All you need to make this a complete meal is a tossed green salad and a good wine.

The way I've written this out here it looks fiddlely. It's not. I just made each step very simple. The shorter version is "cover chicken in lemon juice and olive oil, cover potatoes with olive oil, cook until done." The paprika gives the chicken a lovely bronzed hue in addition to an excellent taste. The cooking method is one I discovered by accident…and now Nigella is recommending it in all of her cookbooks. Apparently, I'm not the only one who has made that mistake or discovered that the mistake is tastier than the original.

COMPANY ROAST CHICKEN WITH POTATOES

• One whole chicken. Ideally it will be organic, free range, and humanely raised - they taste significantly better. Regardless, don't get a big monster chicken, buy something small - a frying hen is ideal. You don't want anything much bigger than 3 pounds.
• Potatoes. These can be big baking potatoes, small red potatoes, tiny new potatoes, or anything in between. Figure on one regular sized, 2 red, or a handful of smaller potatoes per person.
• Olive oil
• One lemon
• Four or more cloves of garlic smashed flat, you don't have to peel them
• Paprika
• Salt and pepper

1. Pre-heat oven to 400F and cut the lemon in half.

2. Clean the chicken with cold water inside and out. Take whatever small pin feathers remain off. Place the chicken on a rack in a roasting pan and juice half the lemon over it, squeeze hard to get all the juices out and then rub the lemon flesh vigorously over the entire chicken.

3. Stuff the remaining half a lemon and the garlic inside the chicken cavity.

4. Pour olive oil generously over the chicken working it in with your hands and making sure that no part of the bird goes un-oiled.

5. Sprinkle paprika, salt, and pepper over the chicken and rub until the entire chicken is lightly red and totally covered in spices.

6. Place the chicken breast side down (that's key, let me repeat it: BREAST SIDE DOWN!!) on the rack.

7. Chop the potatoes into bite-sized chunks and pour them around the rack in the roasting pan. One layer is best but if they get a little stacked it's not the end of the world.

9. Sprinkle the potatoes generously with salt and pepper and pour olive oil over them - do NOT be meager about the amount of oil you're pouring. Toss the potatoes to make sure they all get smeared with oil.

10. Cook the chicken for 15 minutes per pound plus 10 minutes. Every 15 or 20 minutes (so a total of 2 or 3 times) give the potatoes a stir to make sure they're not sticking.

11. Serve surrounded by potatoes.

Note: Remember to flip the chicken back over before attempting to carve. If you care about presentation value, do NOT flip the chicken before presentation.

Source: Laurie Colwin, Nigella Lawson, Craig Claibourne, and my mom.