Ok, so simple Roast Chicken is my absolute favorite!  What’s my secret?  If you can, use the biggest organic Kosher chicken that you can find.  Trader Joe’s often stocks them.  Organic chicken is my second choice.  A 3.5 to 4.25 lb chicken usually takes about 2 hours in my gas oven at 425 degrees.  You’ll have to experiment with yours.  I have found that if I don’t open the oven at all until two hours has passed and then check the temperature, the chicken cooks faster and more evenly.

Ingredients

One organic, kosher roast chicken (as big as you can find it — you can never have enough roast chicken!)

One lemon

One onion

6-8 cloves of garlic

Olive oil

Fresh (or dried) thyme

Fresh (or dried) sage

Fresh (or dried) rosemary

Sea salt

Ground black pepper

4 Sweet potatoes

Preheat oven to 425.  Place chicken in medium roasting pan, breast side up, on the grill that comes with it.  Make sure that there are no giblets inside.  Pat inside dry to remove any excess drippings.

Set up two small bowls: One for what goes inside the chicken and one for what goes on top of the chicken.  Cut onion in half.  One half of onion goes in inside bowl.  Chop other half and put in on top bowl.  Put 3 cloves of garlic in inside bowl; chop remaining cloves and put in on top bowl.  Half lemon.  Put one half in inside bowl.  Squeeze juice from other half into on top bowl.  Add enough olive oil to on top bowl to cover about half the mixture; mix on top bowl.  Put a few sprigs of thyme, sage, and rosemary in inside bowl.  Put a few sprigs of thyme, sage, rosemary in on top bowl.

Put all contents of inside bowl inside cavity of chicken and fold skin over opening.  I try to put the onion and lemon and garlic as far in as possible.  Pour contents of on top bowl on top of chicken, making sure that onion and garlic are spread over entire chicken, and that the herbs stay on top of the breast and legs.  Salt entire chicken with sea salt and black pepper.  Remember that if you use a kosher chicken, you can use less salt because they tend to be saltier.

Place washed, whole sweet potatoes around chicken in pan, also on grill.

Roast for about two hours.  Check temperature.  When it reaches 160 degrees when inserted in chicken without touching bone, your chicken is cooked!  Let chicken and sweet potatoes rest in pan on counter (don’t leave them on top of the stove, because they will continue to cook if your stove takes awhile to cool down like mine).  Carve, serve, and try to save at least a few leftovers!  I do not serve the herbs, which will be singed, with the exception of the sage leaves if you like crispy ones.

Variation: add some freshly grated ginger and lemon zest to your on top mixture.