Easy No-Fail Roast Chicken
Author: 
Serves: 4-6, assuming not everyone wants the breast meat
 
Ingredients
  • 1 4-5 pound roasting chicken, preferably free-range, organic from a small local farm
  • Kosher Salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 lemon, halved
  • ½ bunch fresh thyme or 4 6-inch sprigs of fresh rosemary
  • 4-5 large cloves of garlic smashed
  • 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted or olive oil + more for drizzling vegetables
  • 1 large onion, peeled and thickly sliced
  • kitchen twine for trussing
  • assorted chopped vegetables such as potatoes, winter squash, carrots, fennel
Instructions
  1. When you return home from the market, unwrap the chicken and remove the giblets from the cavity. Rinse the chicken inside and out and dry very well with paper towels. Remove piece of fat from the outside of the cavity. Take a heaping tablespoon of salt and a few grinds of pepper and rub it inside the cavity. If there’s any more salt left on your hands, rub it in between the skin and the breast meat. Rewrap the chicken and refrigerate until ready to cook.
  2. Remove chicken from the refrigerator 30-60 minutes before cooking. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
  3. Stuff the cavity with the lemon, thyme or rosemary and garlic.
  4. Spread the onion slices on the bottom of a shallow roasting pan. Place the chicken on top of the onions and tie the drumsticks with kitchen twine. Brush all over with the melted butter or oil.
  5. Scatter chopped vegetables around chicken and drizzle vegetables with oil. Sprinkle chicken and vegetables with a little salt and pepper.
  6. Roast the chicken for 1 hour 10 minutes - 1 ½ hours or until a instant read thermometer inserted in the breast reads 160-165 degrees. Transfer to a platter or a cutting board and allow to rest about 10-20 minutes, tented with foil.
  7. Carve and serve immediately.
Recipe by Pamela Salzman at https://pamelasalzman.com/easy-no-fail-roast-chicken/