'Engagement Chicken' recipe now a Valentine's Day staple

IF YOUR GIRL serves you roasted chicken stuffed with lemons this Valentine's Day, she wants you to do as Beyoncé sings and "put a ring on it."

Yeah, I'm telling secrets. But c'mon. Valentine's Day is tomorrow, and I'll bet a lot of unsuspecting men will be served Engagement Chicken.

The Tuscan-style dish got its (slightly ironic) name after a young assistant at Glamour magazine made it for her boyfriend, who enjoyed it so much that he had seconds - and then proposed. After she told everyone at the magazine, another staffer tried the recipe on her boyfriend. He, too, proposed. Two more women did the same thing with similar results.

Was it all a big coincidence?

Of course.

There's a reason that the old wives' tale about the way to a man's heart being through his stomach is an old wives' tale.

But "Engagement Chicken" sounds catchy and makes for a great story, which is why Glamour published a recipe for it in 2004. And what do you know, the magazine began hearing from female readers who'd made it for their boyfriends and wound up engaged.

Engagement Chicken quickly became a celebrity.

Glamour editors went on NBC's "Today" show to demonstrate how to make the dish. Print headlines also followed, as word spread about the recipe - chicken stuffed with whole fresh lemons, basted with "marry me" drippings from the pan, and garnished with fresh herbs.

Engagement Chicken got its biggest boost after radio shock jock Howard Stern had it. The morning after, he was raving about the meal on the air when a female listener called in and informed Stern that it sounded as if he'd been served Engagement Chicken. Stern contacted his then-girlfriend Beth Ostrosky, who confessed what she'd been up to.

"I was busted," Ostrosky told the New York Post.

Stern, who was divorced and had vowed never to marry again, proposed (three years later), and the couple wed in 2008.

The legend of Engagement Chicken continues. It's the marquee item in a new cookbook called 100 Recipes Every Woman Should Know: Engagement Chicken and 99 Other Fabulous Dishes to Get You Everything You Want in Life (Hyperion, $24.99) by Cindi Leive and the editors of Glamour.

The book includes wedding anniversary dates and names of couples who claim Engagement Chicken clinched the proposal for them. But I'm not sold.

There's not a gospel bird alive that's that powerful.

Still, that hasn't stopped me from passing my copy of the book along to one of my single girlfriends. Or passing that recipe along to Daily News readers. (And if you want to read some fun commentary from women who have made it, go to www.glamour.com/magazine/ 2006/07/engagement-chicken).

ENGAGEMENT CHICKEN

1 whole chicken (approximately 4 pounds)

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice, plus 3 whole lemons, including 1 sliced for garnish

1 tablespoon kosher or coarse sea salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Fresh herbs for garnish (4 rosemary sprigs, 4 sage sprigs, 8 thyme sprigs, and 1 bunch flat-leaf parsley)

Position an oven rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees. Remove the giblets from the chicken, wash the chicken inside and out with cold water, then let the chicken drain, cavity down, in a colander for 2 minutes.

Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Place the chicken breast-side down in a medium roasting pan fitted with a rack, and pour the lemon juice all over the chicken, both inside and out. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, inside and out.

Prick two whole lemons three times each in three differentplaces with a fork and place them deep inside the cavity. Chicken cavity size may vary, so if one lemon is partly sticking out, that's fine. (Tip: If the lemons are stiff, roll them on the countertop with your palm before pricking to get the juices flowing.)

Put the chicken in the oven, lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees and roast, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

Remove the roasting pan from the oven. Using tongs or two wooden spoons, turn the chicken breast-side up. Insert a meat thermometer in the thigh, and return the chicken to the oven and roast for about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes or until the meat thermometer reads 180 degrees and the juices run clear when the thigh is pricked with a fork.

Keep in mind that cooking times in different ovens vary; roasting a chicken at 350 degrees takes approximately 18-20 minutes per pound, plus an additional 15 minutes.

Once the chicken is done, remove from oven and let it rest for 10 minutes before carving. And here's the secret: Pour the juices from the roasting pan on top of the sliced chicken; this is the "marry me juice." Garnish with fresh herbs and lemon slice.