Roast Chicken

Roast chicken is one of those items that can be very scary for people to make for fear of drying it out or the skin not being perfectly crisp. There aren't a lot of steps involved in making one your great grandmother would be proud of, and once you put it in the oven you set the timer and forget about it. I always use a free-range, antibiotic free chicken because they usually come in the right size (without having to comb through the cases of whole chickens) and the flavor is far richer then a 'run of the mill' chicken. Bell and Evans has chickens like this, usually the grocer also has a store brand that fits the parameters, for those of you Whole Foods Market lovers (GASP!) they have a variety from Amish raised chickens to family farm chickens from Alabama. Although the weight of the chicken may seem small, I assure you that it is enough chicken for 4 people (be they all adults or a mix of ages) and remember, you should NOT be eating more then 6oz meat at a time anyway ;p

*1 - 3.5-4lbs free range, antibiotic free chicken (if you get one larger then 4lbs it won't cook right at this temp and time allotment, the closer to 3.5lbs you can find the better)
*kosher or sea salt and fresh ground pepper

1. Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Cover a roasting pan with tin foil to decrease clean up. Then place a roasting rack in the pan.
2. Rinse the chicken inside and out - if there was a bag inside the chicken of organs remove that.
3. Dry the chicken with paper towels inside and  out.
4. Liberally salt and pepper the inside and outside of the chicken.
5. Cross the legs of the chicken and secure to help evenly cook the chicken. To do this, decide which flap of skin between the drumstick and the large hole to the inside of the chicken is bigger. Cut a slit in that piece of skin about 1/2" long. Take the drumstick on the same side as the slit skin and pull it towards the other drumstick. Then take the opposing drumstick and cross it over the top of the other one, pushing the end of the drumstick through the slit you created, this will hold the legs in a sort of 'Indian style' place so that the breast the of the chicken cooks evenly.
6. Place chicken on the roasting rack and place pan in the oven. Set timer for 55 minutes. LEAVE THE CHICKEN ALONE, don't baste it, don't rotate it, don't even open the door! When the timer dings it is all done. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes before carving, if you want to baste it with the juice in the pan, now is the time to do it.

***Make sure your vent or fan is running when you take the chicken out there will be a lot of heat and some smoke rushing out of the oven and you don't want it to fill your house!

`Remember to fully wash down your sink with antibacterial soap after washing the chicken to decrease the risk of illness.

ENJOY!!