Lemon and pepper chicken

1.2 kilogram chicken (see: tips)
4 cloves garlic
2 lemons
1 onion
1 tbs freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp freshly ground Sichuan pepper (see: tips)
sea salt
olive oil
a little extra lemon juice

Pre-heat oven to 200*C.

Wash chicken inside and out. Pat dry. If you've bought a chicken with a plastic bag of giblets kicking around in the internal cavity, obviously you should remove it. Place the chicken on a chopping board and using either a cleaver or the rear part of a sharp, heavy knife, remove the wing tips. Carefully remove the flabby skin from where the chicken's neck used to be. Now you're ready to season the bird.

Rub some sea salt, as well as the ground pepper, all over the bird. Don't miss any spots. Be sure to rub some inside the cavity, under the wings, around the legs. You may need to grind more pepper.
Slice the lemons into thin wedges and the onions into quarters. Simply peel and crush the cloves of garlic. Stuff the cavity of the chicken with a few lemon wedges, a couple of onion quarters and some of the garlic. Retain the rest of the lemon, onion and garlic to scatter over and around the chicken during cooking.

To truss the bird, take a small length of twine. Bring the tips of the drumsticks together as if the bird is laying on its back with its knees up and its legs pointing towards its arse. Bind them together. Make sure you're not using some kind of plastic-based twine.

Place the bird breast-up in a roasting pan. Scatter all but one of the remaining lemon wedges over and around the chicken. Scatter the remaining onion and garlic around the bird. Drizzle a little olive oil over and around the chicken, then squeeze some lemon juice over the top. Place the chicken in the oven and roast for 45-50 minutes, basting regularly. The cooking time is non-specific as, yeah, ovens and chickens vary. To test that your chicken is done, jam a skewer or cake tester into the thickest part of the chicken's thigh. Juices will run out. If those juices are clear, the chicken is cooked. Remove it from the oven and let it rest for 10-15 minutes before carving. If they're even a little pink, keep it in the oven for a while longer. When the chicken is carved, squeeze a little extra lemon juice and grind some black pepper over the top.

Tips:

Ideally, you'll be using corn-fed, free-range or organic chicken. Fully organic chickens are expensive, so look at the two former options. Both are, at least in Australia, slightly more expensive than your regular, battery-raised hen, but the taste difference is significant.

Sichuan peppercorns can be found in some supermarkets, but your best bet is a Chinese grocery store. Despite the name, they look quite different to the black, white and green peppercorns we're familiar with in Western cooking. The aroma and flavour are different too, which is why I used them in this dish. Don't stress if you can't find them, though. Too, I mean, I reckon white peppercorns would be swell here. You could replace the lemons with lime, if you want.

Finally, serving. A 1.2 kilogram chicken is enough for a couple of people with decent appetites. If you're serving more people, obviously more birds or, rather, a larger bird, is in order. Adjust cooking time as necessary. A 1.6-1.8 kilogram bird would take maybe a hour to a hour and fifteen minutes. Serve this dish simply. Me, I serve it with steamed rice and a basic, usually.