Perfect Herb Roasted Whole Chicken

This weekend I wanted to make a roasted whole chicken using our new roasting pan we bought this summer when we made the red snapper.  Since I've never done it myself, I wanted to make sure to follow a recipe with lots of reviewer comments.  Ina Garten has a Perfect Roast Chicken recipe that looked very promising with vegetables that roast with the chicken.  Ina puts most of her herbs inside the chicken and I was hoping to make an herb rub on the outside. So, I found an additional recipe Herb Roasted Whole Chicken which does just that.  The following recipe is my take on roasting a whole chicken.  The final product turned out incredibly moist and flavorful.  I'm looking forward to doing more roasting this fall!

Ingredients:
- 4 carrots, 2 onions, 1 fennel bulb
- sage, thyme and rosemary (or any selection of herbs)
- 1 lemon, 4 garlic cloves
- 1 whole chicken
- salt, pepper, canola oil

Recipe for Herb Roasted Whole Chicken:
1) Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Chop carrots, 1 onion and fennel into large chunks and place in roasting pan

2) Chop sage, thyme and rosemary (~1-2 tablespoons per chicken). Add 1-2 tablespoons of canola oil and a generous handful of salt to make an herb mixture to rub on the outside of the chicken.

3) Chop 1 lemon into halves (or quarters), 1 onion into quarters, and a few garlic cloves.  Place aromatics inside the chicken and tie the legs together.

4) Lift the skin of chicken from the breast meat and place some of the herb mixture underneath the skin. Continue to rub herb mixture all over the rest of the chicken.  Salt the chicken generously.

 

5) Place chicken inside 450 degree oven for 75-90 minutes until the juices run clear and the chicken is a nice golden brown.  At this point the internal temperature is recommended to be over 165 degrees.  I let it go a little too long and it got up to 180, but it still turned out great.  

6) After you take it out of the oven, let it rest for a minimum of 10-15 minutes before slicing into it.

We paired the chicken with some herb roasted potatoes and sauteed green beans.