This is quite simply the best roasted chicken recipe!!
Ingredients
whole chicken ( around 3 1/2 to 4 pounds. (Do not cut into pieces)
2 & 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons of black pepper
1/2 whole lemon
bottom half whole garlic head (sliced crosswise and not divided into cloves)
2 Tablespoons melted butter
cotton string
roasting pan (not Pyrex or glass)
meat thermometer (optional)
Steps
- Heat oven to 425 °F.
- Remove any giblets, neck, liver, etc. from inside the chicken cavity. Set aside to use in gravy, if wanted. Remove any pin feathers.
- Rinse the chicken in cool water - both inside and out. Pat dry very well on outside, but leave damp on the inside.
- Put in a roasting pan with the breast-side up. I don't use a Pyrex dish, due to the high temperature.
- Use about 1/3 of the salt and pepper, to rub inside the chicken. Then stuff in 1/2 lemon, garlic half, and fresh herbs or rub in (if using dried, powdered herbs).
- **At this point, you can refrigerate the chicken for an hour or two, then move on to STEP 7 OR you can move directly on to STEP 7.
- Brush the melted butter all over the outside of the chicken. Then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together and tuck the wings under the body.
- Bake for 50 minutes at 425 degrees. Carefully remove from oven and baste or spoon juices over the chicken.
- Return chicken to oven and bake another 10 - 15 minutes, checking to make sure the skin isn't getting too brown and checking for doneness (STEP 10).
- The chicken is done when: you can pierce the skin with a knife and juices run clear OR cut between the thigh and leg and juices run clear OR a meat thermometer probe registers 165 degrees inside the chicken.
- Let sit for about 15 minutes before cutting. (It never lasts this long at our house.)