Engagement chicken

I'm a regular watcher of the Food Network and one of my favorite chefs is Ina Garten (aka the Barefoot Contessa).  The other day she made what she called "engagement chicken," which is named after the fact that women who make this chicken for their boyfriends usually get engaged shortly thereafter (recipe here: Ina Garten Engagement Roast Chicken).  I don't happen to have a boyfriend at the moment but I do appreciate tasty new ways to make chicken and so I'd thought I'd give it a try.  Before I share the results, I should mention that I've never cooked a whole chicken on my own and I thought it wouldn't be that hard.  I'd heard horror stories of people forgetting to take out the giblets so I made sure I didn't fall into that trap.  As it turns out that my biggest mistake would be one of the simplest - I cooked the chicken upside down!  For some reason, I put the chicken in my new roasting pan with the breast side down.  Needless to say, the top part cooked to a crisp, golden brown but the breast (the best part in my opinion) came out juicy but with pale, slimy skin. 

Here's the upside down chicken ready to go into the oven:

Here's the chicken after it came out of the oven:

 

Here's the onions and lemons after roasting:

And here's the gravy that you make with the caramelized onions and lemons:

In spite of my mistake, the recipe was easy and very tasty so I'll be adding it to my list of recipe favorites.  Bring on the boyfriend!