Recipe: Roasted Chicken

Hmmm...roasted chicken? How hard can that be?

Well, believe it or not, I used to be afraid to roast a whole chicken. There were all kinds of reasons, #1 being what would I do with the dark meat that we don't normally eat? I finally bit the bullet when I realized the local grocery store puts them on sale for .99 lb pretty often. Now I'll roast a chicken for Saturday or Sunday dinner, then use the leftovers for pot pie later in the week. I get enough chicken to feed two meals to our family of four for about 7 bucks! Last week the store marked them down to .58 lb. Bonus! I bought two. My husband doesn't like chicken but to that I say "too bad." It's better for us than beef and at .58 lb., much cheaper!

Anyway, a couple of months ago I sat down and read Freakin Fabulous by Clinton Kelly from TLC's What Not to Wear. Cute book. It has recipes. Bonus again. Because I borrowed the book from the library, I photocopied the one recipe that appealed to me, which was a simple roasted chicken. He uses all kinds of fresh ingredients. I use spices from a jar so I guessed on the amounts. This is basically what I do:

1 roasted chicken (I always get around 7 lbs)
Herbs like sage, thyme, rosemary, etc.
His recipe calls for lemon, I threw in a little lemon peel instead :p
Kitchen string - huh? Never use it.
Softened or melted butter - mmmm, butter
Salt & pepper
Roasting pan - duh

Preheat the oven to 425°. Rinse the chicken inside and out, pull out the guts that are wrapped in paper. Towel dry the chicken.

Stuff the herbs in the cavity, poke a bunch of holes in the lemon and put the lemon inside as well (I skip the whole lemon part and put a little bit of lemon peel in the cavity).

Truss the chicken and rub the skin with the softened or melted butter (I don't truss and it doesn't seem to affect anything). Sprinkle with salt & pepper. Put in the roasting pan and put it in the oven.

Roast for 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 350° and cook for 15 minutes per pound. Remove from the oven and let sit for 15 minutes. Carve and enjoy its juicy goodness.