The Secret to a Perfect Roast Chicken

I've been completely enamored with my roasting pan since I got it for Christmas. One of the easiest dinners to throw on the table when I'm running short on time is a roast chicken. After many successful roasts, I think I've picked up several tips and tricks that make me salivate at the thought.


I normally get a 4 pound chicken and cook it for about 1.25-1.5 hours at 400. I tend to not use a timer but instead rely on my nose and peak to see when the skin crisps up and the legs will pull off easily. This is what I do:

1 Wash it off well and clean out the cavity
2 Pat it dry all over (this helps the skin crisp up)
3 Rub (massage even) kosher salt and coarse ground pepper all over the skin
4 Drizzle olive oil all over and massage that in as well
5 If you want potatoes too, parboil them with a lemon. When you take the lemon out, stab it a few times and shove it in the chicken cavity (Jamie Oliver suggests this and I really love how it smells)
6 Take some fresh herbs (rosemary and thyme are a must) stuff those in the cavity or you can also cut little slits in the skin and shove the herbs up underneath
7 I use a rack in the roasting pan but you could just sit the chicken on top of a mound of potatoes, onions, carrots and get the same effect with the juices all over the place
8 Take a whole head of garlic and put that in the pan too with the tops chopped off. This will soften up nicely as the chicken roasts. When the chicken is done rub those mushy cloves all over the skin to make things sweet and delicious.
9 The time and temperature I use cooks it perfectly juicy without having the breast dry out. I would imagine it depends on your oven. So if you find that the breast is drying out you can lay slices of bacon over the breast or even just some tin foil to keep it from drying out.

Any other tricks?