Chicken

Chicken carries none of lamb's festival weight in Greek cooking; it is instead the meat of an ordinary Sunday lunch, roasted whole or in pieces alongside potatoes in the same tray, rather than reserved for a specific feast day. Kotopoulo lemonato, chicken and potato wedges roasted together in a lemon, garlic and oregano marinade, is the clearest and most common expression of this everyday role.

The technique that separates a good version of this tray from a mediocre one is timing rather than seasoning: potatoes take noticeably longer than chicken to turn properly tender and golden, so giving the potatoes a head start in a hot oven before the chicken joins them is what lets both finish together rather than one being overdone while the other lags behind.

Bone-in, skin-on pieces are strongly preferred over boneless breast for exactly the kind of long, shared-tray roasting Greek chicken cookery favours, since the bone and skin both help the meat stay moist over a longer cooking time than a lean, boneless cut would tolerate well.