Roast Chicken

I LOVE roast chicken, so I decided to try and make my own here at home. My favorite part about roast chicken is the left overs. Mmmm, cold chicken the next day is the best. I know, probably doesn't sound great to anyone else, but my favorite! What's even better is this recipe hardly took any time to prepare.

The only thing I changed in this recipe was I threw some rosemary on top. It's my favorite herb and I had a little bit left in a bottle from refilling the one in my spice rack, so I went for it. Honestly, I'm sure you could use whatever herbs/spices you wanted to make this roast chicken your own!

20 garlic cloves
1 broiler/fryer chicken
1 lemon, cut into four wedges
8 fresh thyme sprigs, cut in half
2 Tbsp butter, softened
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp freshly ground pepper

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Cut 12 of the garlic cloves in half.
• Remove giblets from chicken cavity if necessary.
• With a sharp paring knife, cut 24 slits in the chicken (breasts, drumsticks, and thighs). Insert each with a piece of the halved garlic.
• Place the lemon wedges, thyme, and remaining whole garlic cloves in chicken cavity. Tie drumsticks together.
• Place chicken on a rack in a roasting pan, breast side up.
• Rub skin with butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
• Roast, uncovered, for about one and a half hours, or until internal temperature is 180 degrees.
• Remove from oven, tent with foil, let stand for 15 minutes before carving.

I couldn't find my roasting pan, and I'm pretty sure I don't have a rack for it... so a 9 x 13 pan worked fine.