Everyone should know how to roast a chicken. There are so many ways and the flavor palate is pretty limitless so you kinda sorta can’t mess it up. There are also so many uses for a roasted chicken. You can use the chicken for salads, dips, sandwiches, or soups so if you roast a big one it could have multiple uses. They usually range 3-8 pounds heavy and can go in either a crockpot or the oven. If you have a larger size chicken then I recommend you roast it in the oven because it could get a little snug in a slow cooker and come out soggy and undercooked.

Herbs are always available in every grocery store and they are super inexpensive. They make such a difference in slow roasted dishes. The flavors really develop when they have time to cook so I always recommend to buy the real deal instead of the dried ones. The dry ones are actually more expensive and don’t ever taste better than the real fresh herb. You also need butter. Butter keeps things moist and it’s just a must.I added fresh veggies to this roast because I wanted to make a gravy and I wanted an easy side but to roast just the chicken you can leave the veggies out and just add a cup of chicken stock to the bottom of the pot to add a little flavor to make a stock. I added onions and baby carrots and they made a perfect side with all the flavors from the chicken.

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken ( I used a 5 lb chicken)
• 2 springs fresh rosemary
• 4 garlic cloves minced
• 1/4 cup butter (half stick of butter) melted
• 1 1/2 tsp each of salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, onion powder, celery salt, oregano
• 1 cup chicken stock
• optional* 1 pack of baby carrots and 1 large onion cut into chunks

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. In a large dutch oven or deep baking dish, place your chicken breast side up. Pat the chicken dry so your spices can stick. Add all of your seasoning EVENLY to your bare chicken.
3. Add the chicken stock to the bottom of the dish. 
4. Mix the garlic and 1 sprig of rosemary finely chopped into your melted butter and evenly pour over the chicken trying to keep as much on the top. Put one whole sprig of rosemary on top.
5. Fill the surrounding area of the pot or dish with the onion and carrots if you chose to
6. Bake for 1 hr- 1hr & 15 minutes with occasional basting. The internal temperature should be 165 degrees and the skin should be crispy and golden. Let it rest for 20 minutes before cutting it so that the juicy juices don’t go running out. Slice and serve! 

FYI – basting just means pouring the juices that the chicken makes all over the chicken. Keeps things moist.