If there is one thing every person should know how to cook, it is a roasted chicken, specifically my Easy Roasted Chicken.

I have a friend who keeps telling me that I don't realize that a lot of people are clueless when it comes to seasonings and spices. Sometimes when I'm telling her how to make something and I just blow right through the spices and herbs she's like "whoa, hold the phone, what the heck is that and is it dry or fresh and how the heck much do I use". With that in mind, I decided this Easy Roasted Chicken would be the perfect recipe to share because it doesn't have a lot of "fancy" ingredients but there is a ton of flavor created.

For me, the most important results I want to achieve from my Easy Roasted Chicken are:

1. Moist Chicken

2. Flavorful

3. A nice crispy skin

If you end up with those three things in the end, it's a success.

Okay, so you know what you want to achieve, now let's get into how to achieve it.

The first thing you want to do is reach into that cavity and grab out the bag of "goodies" (giblets). It's up to you if you want to use these for making a gravy or stuffing, but I just toss them in the garbage.

Next, I rinse the chicken, inside and out with cold water then I pat it dry (again inside and out) with paper towels. Place the chicken, breast side up on a roasting rack, inside a roasting pan. There are a few different types of roasting racks. I have both a V-Shaped and a Flat one and I really don't notice much of a difference between the two, so that's a call you can make.

Okay, so after you get the bird dried and on the rack you want to get your flavor builders going. I like to make sure everything is chopped and out of it's containers because I don't want to wash my hands a million times and I certainly don't want to be opening jars with bacteria chicken hands! You'll want to cut a lemon in half and then into wedges, the exact sizes don't matter, we're just going to jam them in the chicken cavity. Chop your onion, give your garlic a little smash, rip off a good handful of fresh parsley and make sure your butter is softened. I even go so far as to pour some salt and grind some pepper into a little bowl so I don't have to handle the containers once I touch the chicken.

I like to start with the butter. Sometimes, I lift the chicken skin and rub the butter directly under the skin and then on top too, but I know a lot of you get squeamish when it comes to that. If you can't handle jamming your hand under the skin then just rub it all over the top of the skin. Grab a piece of the lemon and squeeze that all over the top of the skin too and follow that up with a generous helping of salt and pepper. Now take everything else you got chopped and jam them all into the cavity of the chicken. Don't be shy, he won't mind.

Almost ready for cooking but first we've got to tie this bird up. I've never been able to master perfectly trussing a bird. All I do is grab some kitchen string and tie the legs together (the drumsticks, just be sure to pull it tight. Then I grab the wings and bend them underneath the bird. Voila, ready to roast!

I like to start at a higher temperature (425) and let the chicken hang out in that for a half hour and then knock the heat down to 350 to finish. Cooking time depends on the size of your bird. Usually a 4-6 pounder will take anywhere from an hour to two hours. Hopefully you've got a little pop up timer in there, if not make sure you place an oven safe meat thermometer into the thigh area (not touching bone) and pull it out at 165 degrees.

Be sure you cut your kitchen string before serving!

Once you master the recipe of Easy Roasted Chicken, you can play around with herbs and spices. The more common herbs to use are thyme and rosemary. Enjoy!

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