Roasted Chicken

I've had several requests for my roasted chicken recipe, so I thought I'd add it to the blog! I really wish I had taken a pic of the final product because it turned out so beautiful!!! Roasting a chicken is so easy, I'll never buy another rotisserie again! So here's what I did: I came across a chicken at Kroger (4.37 lbs) and it was on sale - sorry, I can't remember exactly how much I paid. I had always heard that cleaning the guts of the chicken can be pretty nasty, so I put on my kitchen gloves to clean out the gizzards and such. It really wasn't bad and took all of 2 seconds. Then I rinsed out the cavity. I cut two lemons in half and stuffed them into the cavity I had just cleaned. Then I simply salt&peppered the outside of the chicken, and added a little rosemary on top as well. I don't own a roasting pan, but I read online that you need to elevate the chicken off of the baking sheet in order for it to cook evenly. So....I laid a wire cookie cooling rack on top of a 9x13 baking dish and just sat my chicken on top of the cookie rack. Easy.

I baked my chicken at 350 for 20 minutes per pound plus another 15 minutes, or until a meat thermometer inserted into the thigh reads 165. So mine took just about 2 hours. We were left with a beautiful, golden brown, delicious and juicy chicken, just like rotisserie! It fed all four of us dinner, plus chicken salad the next day. And let me tell you, the house smelled heavenly!