Perfect Roast Chicken.

Source: food.chatelaine.com via Chelsea on Pinterest

Ingredients

3 1/2 lb (1.75 kg) whole chicken
1 large lemon
4 garlic cloves, peeled
2 tbsp (30 mL) butter, at room temperature

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 F (190 C). 

2. Remove neck and giblets from body cavity of chicken. Set aside and use for gravy if you wish. Place rack in shallow-sided roasting pan. Lightly spray with oil and set both aside. 

3. Cut lemon into 4 wedges. Coarsely chop garlic. Sprinkle garlic and salt over the inside of cavity. Stuff with lemon wedges. 

4. Place chicken breast-side up on rack in roasting pan. Rub butter over skin. Sprinkle all over with salt. If you want chicken to hold it's shape, tie legs together. But when testing, we got a more evenly cooked bird with crispier leg skin when we didn't do this. Tuck wings underneath bird. 

5. Roast, uncovered, in centre of preheated oven, basting once or twice with pan juices, until an instant read thermometer inserted into thickest part of thigh reads 170F (77C) and leg moves easily and its juices run clear, about 1 1/4 to 1 3/4 hours 

5. Remove cooked chicken to a cutting board. Loosely cover with foil and let stand 10 minutes before carving.

Instead of cooking a turkey for thanksgiving, we decided to attempt to cook a whole chicken. Prior to this past weekend, I have never cooked a whole chicken before. I found this amazing recipe from Chatelaine and it was amazing. However, we didn't follow the recipe exactly. We added a little bit of spice to the outside of the bird -- garlic powder, onion salt, etc. Combined with the lemon taste, the taste was incredible. Yum, yum yum! 

I meant to take a photo of the final product, but was too eager and drove in before realizing I forgot to take a photo. Once I get my iPhone I promise I will take more photos of everything!