Roast a Chicken

This is a foolproof recipe for roasting the perfect chicken. Amaze your friends and astonish your family. It's great for leftovers, too.

Ingredients

One 3.5 - 4 pound (1.5-2kg) chicken (kosher chickens are the juiciest - you might also try a free-range bird)
One lemon
Salt (use kosher or sea salt--one to two teaspoons)
Freshly ground pepper--a couple of teaspoons
Oil (to grease roasting pan)
Optional: Fresh herbs, your choice - rosemary, thyme, or tarragon.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF/180ºC. Make sure one of the oven racks is in the upper third of the oven.
Remove the innards from the chicken and wash well.
Dry thoroughly inside and out with paper towels and place the bird in a shallow, lightly oiled roasting pan.
Sprinkle a little salt and freshly ground pepper inside the cavity of the bird.
Slice up one lemon and place it inside the cavity.
Close the opening with toothpicks and tie the legs loosely together with a little bit of kitchen twine.
Rub a little salt and pepper onto all sides of the chicken, place it in the roasting pan breast-side down (the 60525198 6901b98f6d.jpg above shows the bird breast-side up), and place it in on the rack in the top third of your oven.
After 50 minutes, remove the chicken from the oven, flip it over, and return it to the oven to finish roasting breast-side up.
After another 45-50 minutes of cooking (figure on 25 minutes per pound), remove the chicken, allow it to rest for 20 minutes, then carve and serve with the pan drippings.

This video highlights a different method than that described in this article.

You can vary this by adding fresh herbs (tarragon or rosemary are a nice choice) along with the lemon to the cavity of the bird prior to roasting.
You can do this on a Weber kettle, too, by the indirect heat method. Just grill-roast right on the rack with a drip pan below.
Let the chicken rest for 20 minutes after removing it from the oven. This enables the juices to disperse throughout the chicken.

Don't be discouraged by the number of steps here, they're not hard to follow. With such a simple list of ingredients (a chicken, salt, pepper, a lemon, some oil to grease the pan), it's easy. Try it!

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