kitchen tips: perfect roast chicken.

today i am putting a spin on kitchen tips.
since these are tips and it does come from the kitchen i thought it fitting.
i am talking about basics everyone should know.
i have had emails from all you wonderful people asking me how to do this and that and i thought i would educate everyone and sometimes i might also be educating myself in the process by making something that i have never done as to help you all out. believe it or not there are some things i don't know ho to do - shocking i know!
i was going to start a new series for this...something along the line of kitchen 101 or basic for you from me....but then i realized i had the kitchen tips going and to save us from over-complicating it and making yet ANOTHER column i decided to morph it into my kitchen tips because as i mentioned above - they are tips and it does come from the kitchen!

today i am going to talk roast chicken.
to me there is nothing better than a roast chicken.
i love roast chicken.
i love roast chicken dinner, roast chicken sandwiches and leftover roast roast chicken & mayo on a stone wheat thin - to name a few.
at one point i was roasting a minimum of three chicken's a morning because we had roast chicken sandwiches on our menu and sliced "roast chicken" was not on the menu. the real stuff was in order.

the thing with roast chicken is this - it's not complicated! but it does seem so if you are not used to them. it can be quite daunting and i am here to guide you to where you will be proud of the chicken you place on your dinner table and all the oohh's and aahh's will be rightly deserved.
if you follow a few simple steps you are in for the treat of the best stuff ever. i promise.

isn't that beautiful?

the perfect roast chicken.

paper towel
one 3 to 4 pound chicken {you can go larger, just increase your cooking time - not the oven temperature!}
one bulb of garlic - yes the WHOLE bulb, skins and all.
half a lemon
kosher salt
fresh ground pepper
olive oil
kitchen twine
roasting pan
meat thermometer

pre-heat your oven to 425F degrees.
wash your chicken and dry with paper towel - very important step. {this is where this faucet comes in handy when dealing with chicken hands!}. your chicken will not brown if you don't do this! when your chicken is dry, place in your roasting pan - if you do not have a roasting pan you can make a make-shift one by placing a wire rack over a casserole dish, just make sure the casserole dish is larger than the chicken so you catch all the drips! now season your cavity with salt and pepper - you have removed all the innards right? sometimes they leave the organs in a baggy in the chicken's cavity. remove this! {i throw them away as i have no use for it but people do use them for things - google that.} also sometimes there is a flap of extra skin/fat here - i rip it off and toss away. slice your lemon into wedges and stuff them in the cavity then slice your garlic bulb in half - skins and all - so you have two halves cut through all the garlic, and stuff the whole thing in the cavity. now you want to tie together your legs. need that cavity shut up tight. i have no technique for this - i try to make sure to have the legs crossed and starting with my string underneath and wrapping it up, i keep pulling tight till the legs wrap and then quickly tie it tight and pat myself on the back. now grind pepper over the top {not too much! you can sprinkle with salt also but i tend not to salt many things.} and drizzle some olive oil over the top - if too much falls off use a brush to spread it around and coat your bird. put some water in the bottom of your roasting pan - under the rack - i don't know why...just do it. pop it into your pre-heated oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes. pull it out, check the temperature with a meat thermometer - down between the leg and breast into the thigh. it needs to read 81 degrees celsius. keep popping it in a 10 minute increments till this temp is reached. once done let rest, covered in foil, on the counter for 10 minutes.
stop. admire. carve. serve!

**i forgot....do not throw out your bones! bag them up + bag up any leftover chicken and toss in your freezer. i'll show you what to do with those soon!