Perfect Roast Chicken

I think this is a recipe lift from Emeril Lagasse. Which means, I started with his recipe and over the course of a few years have tweaked it to make it my own. I'm doing two chickens at a time because that's how they sell them at Costco. And because I have a hubby who loves to just eat the white meat and will pick the entire bird clean all by himself. And because if you're going to do one, you might as well do two and have yummy leftovers for enchilada's or a delicious chicken salad! So, if you're only going to roast one chicken, you'll have to half the recipe. Sorry, that just how I roll. (Total prep and cook time: under 2 hours.)

What you'll need:
A roasting pan (or a cookie sheet/baking dish and an inexpensive bag of carrots- which is what I use)
cooking twine
tin foil
2 three to five pound roasting chickens (sometimes called 'whole fryers'), nearly room temperature
1/4 c. olive oil
2 Tbs kosher salt
2 tsp black pepper
4-6 sprigs of rosemary (or thyme)
1 lemon
1 medium onion
4-6 garlic cloves

Pull your birds out of the fridge and hour or so before roasting to bring it up to room temp. If you start roasting it straight out of the fridge, it will take longer to cook, you will need to cover it for the last 20 minutes, and then the meat will be drier. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees. It's important to do all your prep work before you start touching the chicken otherwise you'll be washing your hands all the live long day, so:

• Pull out your roasting pan. If, like me, you don't own a roasting pan, place a few carrots or stalks of celery along the bottom of a baking dish (or cookie sheet - in the case of my dual chickens).
• In a bowl, mix together the olive oil, salt, pepper, the zest of a lemon and two sprigs of rosemary, leaves removed from the stem and chopped. If you don't have fresh rosemary you can use dried (2 Tbs), just put this oil mixture together a couple of hours before you plan to roast so the dried herbs can soak in some oil and come back to life.
• Cut the (now zested) lemon in half, the onion in quarters and peel the garlic cloves. An easy way to do this is to lay the flat part of your chef's knife on top of the garlic clove and press down with the palm of your hand. The clove will crush a bit and the skin practically falls off. Set the other two rosemary sprigs with these.
• Cut two pieces of cooking twine about two feet long to truss your birds with. You can get a package of it at Walmart for a couple bucks. If you've never trussed a bird, check out this video.

Now, onto the dirty work! Rinse your chicken, inside and out, and pat it dry with paper towels. Place it on a cutting board or large plate.  Rub the oil mixture on the outside of the chickens and between the skin and breast meat. Squeeze 1/2 a lemon over the outside of one chicken. Stuff the squeezed lemon half inside the cavity with half of the onion (2 quarters), 2-3 garlic cloves and a couple sprigs of rosemary. Repeat with the other chicken. Truss your stuffed chickens. Again, see the video here for instruction.

Place chickens in roasting pan and place the pan in your very hot oven, uncovered. Roast chickens for 55-75 minutes until the internal temperature is 160 degrees F or until juices run clear. (The bigger the bird the longer it will take.) Remove chickens from the oven, cover loosely with tin foil and let them sit for ten minutes. Carve and serve.