Preheat oven to 375

Prior to preparing your bird, check the cavity of the chicken. It should be empty inside. If you have any giblets or plastic bags inside, simply remove them. Add them to the bottom of your roasting pan to add nutrients and flavor to your chicken bone broth, or save them for using in other dishes later!

In a heavy dutch oven, place chicken breast side up, making sure there are no giblets or plastic inside the bird. If there is a neck or any other pieces, you can leave them in the pan to add flavor to your broth later. If you don’t have a dutch oven, any heavy. Oven safe pan with lid will work!

Add plentily of salt and black pepper to the top your chicken. I typically will not cook a fancy roasted chicken (lemon garlic, herbs, etc) as later I want to be able to transform the leftovers into anything else. Thyme chicken and then taco stir-fry just don’t work.

Don't be afraid of using salt if you are using a real salt! Essential minerals come from salt, and this will give your cooking a five star rating!

In step 3, the cook time is largely determined by the size of your chicken. Typically an entire chicken weights 4.5 pounds, if your bird is larger than this, consider leaving the lid on 15 minutes longer. If your bird is smaller, remove it 15 minutes soon. This simple recipe is the best way to roast a chicken because it relies on the meat thermometer to ensure you have a juicy and moist chicken!

Put the lid on and put it in the oven for one hour. After one hour, remove lid. If your meat thermometer allows you to leave it in the oven, insert it now, otherwise continue roasting your chicken for twenty minutes before checking the temperature. Continue cooking your bird without the lid on until the temperature of the meat is 165.Cooking without the lid for this remaining time allowed the meat to lock in moisture, but now you will get the crispiest skin. Check this by directly inserting the probe into the breast, without hitting the bone. This estimates your total cooking time to be about 1.5 hours, but using an instant-read thermometer is the only safe bet to a perfectly roasted chicken! Once the temperature is 165, remove from the oven and let the chicken rest for at least 15 move minutes. Don’t worry– the pan will hold in heat well.

Check the temperature of the chicken in the breast meat instead of the thickest part of the thigh for a few reason. Mainly, dark meat like thighs have more connective tissue and cooking them higher temperature than 165 degrees F will help break down the connective tissue. Yet, if you let your white meat (breasts) cook past 165, they will be dry and you'll wish you were eating juicy meat!

Serve your chicken– you can carve it like a fancy thanksgiving dinner or just let everyone snag their favorite piece! Just be sure to save all the chicken skin, bones, pan juices, cartridge and soft bits to make some amazing and nourishing broth after dinner!