Here’s a pic of a chicken I roasted.

I made this for a special Valentine’s meal, but honestly, it was much easier to do than many of my mid-week dishes. And it was soooooo good. Very juicy and flavorful, with that pretty, crispy skin all over. I was so proud of this that I actually sent a pic to my parents (my dad makes the greatest roast chicken in the history of roast chicken) and then called them to make sure they saw it.

A few things I did:

1. I cleaned out the chicken, patted it to dry, and left it covered with a paper towel in my refrigerator for at least five or six hours before I was ready to stuff it. I guess when the skin is nice and dry, you’re more able to achieve crispy, golden skin. I’d never done this before, actually. I’d been relying on a very high heat and/or a lot of butter, usually at the cost of some flavor and juiciness, but not anymore.

2. I seasoned the cavity with a lot of kosher salt, black pepper, and herbes de Provence and then stuffed it with a whole garlic clove cut in half and a lemon cut in quarters. I didn’t have any fresh herbs, but if I had, I would’ve skipped the herbes de Provence and gone with a bunch of fresh thyme and rosemary instead.

3. I slathered the skin with unsalted butter and then salted and peppered the whole body.

4. I made a base of onions (2, chopped in quarters), a bunch of carrots, and another lemon chopped in quarters. This is deviant from my dad’s method — he lets the chicken roast on its own — but I liked this result: an even more intensely flavored bird, and lots of nice roasted vegetables to make into soup.

5. I added some white wine to the vegetables before popping that sucker in the oven. Again, deviant from dad’s method, but man did it help with the juiciness and basting.

And of course, the usual basting and roasting and so on. I roasted this one at 425 degrees for just about an hour and fifteen minutes, basting every 20 minutes or so.

Now I have a lot of roasted chicken leftover for lunches and sandwiches, and the makings of a decent chicken stock. Success! Certainly worth bragging to your parents/the Internet about.