Basic Roasted Chicken

Preheat the oven to 425. Rinse the chicken, inside and out, pull out any packages found in the cavity. Pat the chicken dry. Squeeze the lemon over the chicken, put the lemons in the cavity of the chicken. Using your hands, rub the butter all over the skin of the chicken. Sprinkle a good amount of salt and pepper all over the chicken. If you have thyme, strip it off the stems, sprinkle it on the chicken, put a couple of sprigs into the cavity with the lemons. If you have poultry seasoning, sprinkle it lightly over the outside of the chicken. Place the chicken on a roasting rack in a roasting pan, or if you don’t have a rack, just put it in the roasting pan. Add some water to the bottom of the pan. Put it in the oven for around 45 minutes to an hour, or until it is nice and brown, and you get a temperature of around 140 in the thickest part of the thigh. You might need to add some water to the bottom of the pan while it is cooking, to ensure that the chicken drippings don’t burn. Take the chicken out, take it out of the pan and put it on a cutting board. Let it sit for around 10 minutes before cutting it up. Meanwhile, if you want some gravy, and the roasting pan is metal, put it on the stove, turn on the burner. Put a little white wine to deglaze the pan, scraping up the crusty bits in the pan. Pour the gravy into a bowl, serve along side the chicken.