Roasted Chicken, done right.

"The glories of perfectly roasted chicken are manifold. Crisp skin, juicy meat, bones to make wonderful stock...but the possible detriments are also numerous -- burnt skin, chewy meat, salty broth. Roasting a chicken properly is difficult -- fully cooked, yet not overcooked. It is a fine line, really. You want to create luscious dinner with the possibility of tasty leftovers."

Serves 5-6

• 1 Herondale Farm Chicken
• 5 stalks carrots, roughly chopped
• 5 stalks celery, roughly chopped
• 2 onions (or 5 shallots) roughly chopped
• 2 Meyer lemons, thinly sliced
• 4 sprigs fresh rosemary
• alt, freshly ground, to taste (at least 1 teaspoon)
• pepper, freshly ground, to taste (at least 1 teaspoon)
• garlic, fresh or ground, to taste (at least 1 teaspoon)
• olive oil

1) preheat oven to 400 degrees
2) place carrots, celery, onions into bottom of large roasting pan
3) separate skin from flesh of chicken,
4) rub, with your bare hands, under the skin of the chicken and into the meat, a slurry of olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic (a kitchen assistant is useful here to pour the seasonings into your hands)
5) place Meyer lemon slices and rosemary sprigs evenly under the skin, all around the chicken
6) rub the outside of the chicken with oil, salt, and pepper
7) place on top of veggies in the pan
8) pour 1 cup of water into the pan
9) bake, at 400 degrees, for 1:40 in convection oven or 2:15 in normal oven (or until done -- when you can cut into the meat at the bone without seeing blood or pinkness.)

To serve:

Carve and serve the chicken. Yum. For this particular dinner we served it with blanched broccoli doused with lemon juice and olive oil and oven-fried baby potatoes.

Note:

You don't have to roast the chicken on a bed of veggies -- you can bake the chicken on a rack in an empty pan if you like. However, you are going to add carrots, celery, and onion to your stock later, so you might as well toss them into the roasting pan under the chicken. Besides, I'm convinced that the veggies add more flavor if they have been roasted before being added to your stock.

http://thebestsoupever.blogspot.com/2007/02/roasted-chicken-done-right.html