Roast chicken is the pinnacle of a good cook. To me that is. You can eat the roast chicken one day, make enchiladas, tacos, salad and whatever with it the 2nd day. Then cook the carcass and all the bits the 3rd day to make a broth and have chicken and dumplings. Or just freeze the carcass and use it later, just don't throw it away, it's still good!
Plus the best part of a roast chicken is that roast chicken skin.
So many ways to cook a chicken, here's the one Mom always did but there are so many variations. Keep with me as I explain the simple process with notes. You don't need a fancy pan. You don't have to tie the legs together and baste the crap out of it. Just a good pan, some foil or preferred is a pan with a lid. I found that the Le Creuset style pan makes the best damn chicken but if you don't have one, any pan will do.
Also, wash your damn hands with soap and hot water. A lot. You'll be washing your hands a lot if you aren't wearing disposable food gloves.
Preheat oven to 350.
1 stick of butter
1 whole chicken
peeled garlic cloves or granulated
salt
Optional: italian seasoning, seasoned salt, tony cacheres seasoned salt, 1/2 an onion, more garlic, more butter, fresh basil leaves, rosemary, thyme or tarragon, white wine
Wash your chicken, pull out giblets and schmaltz. Schmaltz is that large chunk of fat at its butt. Some people like to sauté it until it's crispy. Let the chicken dry a bit.
Rub it generously with the butter on the skin. Get under the skin or put bits under the skin. At this point you can add fresh herbs under the skin, especially the breast and thighs if you're feeling fancy. If you don't have garlic cloves, sprinkle the chicken all over with granulated garlic, especially into the cavity. If you have cloves, put a bunch into the cavity if you want it really garlicky. You can also put 1/2 an onion into the cavity with some butter.
Place it breast down in your pan. Unless you want it fancy looking, I like it breast down because the flavors and butter juices get absorbed into the breast meat and make it taste so much better. Salt with seasoned salt of choice or just plain salt if you want. This is for tasty crispy skin.
Add a cup or so of water, some more butter, 1/4 cup of white wine if you want to the pan. Cover with foil or lid. Bake for 40 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 15-20 minutes until that skin is just like you want it. It will make your house smell so good and don't forget those delicious oysters on the back.
So here is the TL;DR version.
Oven 350. One whole cleaned chicken. Rub butter, add garlic. Drop in baking pan with water and butter. Salt. Bake for an hour. Remove lid for last 15 minutes. Go nuts over that chicken skin.
