Roast Chicken

(based on The Foodie Handbook's Roast Chicken recipe page 62)

• about 2.75 lb free range chicken (original recipe sis 3.25 lb bird and roast longer)
  
• 3 tbsp soft butter
• s+p
• handful of italian oregano
• 3 sprigs of rosemary
• 4 heads of garlic (smashed)

1. preheat oven 425 F
2. sprinkle liberally with s+p inside and out
3. separate skin on top of breasts from the meat
   
4. stuff cavity with rosemary, garlic, and oregano
5. rub butter all over the cavity
6. grease lil more below on the sheetpan
7. truss up the chicken's legs and wings
8. lie it on one of the thighs
9. roast 30 minutes
10. baste and flip it to the other thigh to rest on
11. roast 25 more minutes...
12. done! (i took out prior to timer because meat pulled away from leg a lot..checked temp and was 170 at thigh and breast)
13. rest it with its tail up and breast down...let the dresses go into the breasts
    

grade B+

- needed slightly more salt
- ideally, more color on the breast...
- because the bird is so small, i needed to lower times before flip and leave some time to roast the breast
- just barely cooked through...see lil pink in the joint after cut into the thigh (originally thought not cooked enough..but i was wrong)
- breast quite moist but tough to say because it was freerange and very small breasts
- slight crispy..want it more crispy
- great flavor because of butter

next time:
- get a bird about 3.25 lbs
- roast as directions say...1/2 hour on a side, then 1/2 hour after flip, then 20 minutes for the breast and lower temp to 375 if not fully cooked and cook til juices run clear
- try to maybe roast one flip with the breasts down to leave breasts less exposed
- using an onion to stuff it more so heat doesn't go in would work better than just herbs where i can see the cavity open...
- learn to truss a bird properly

ideas:
- i like this idea of roasting on tights then keep flipping
- i also like the trussing as i believe it will allow for less heat to hit the breasts
- still feel that breasts will overcook esp if last minutes is to roast the breasts...
- i think best to roast first 20 min on one thigh, 20 min on other thigh, 20 min on the breast, and 20 minutes on the back....better than so much time with breasts exposed i think...