If you’ve never roasted a whole chicken, you may find it intimidating. There are so many things to think through. Making sure it’s cooked all the way while keeping the white meat from drying out, making sure the wings and legs don’t get tough waiting for the rest of the chicken to cook, a nice crispy skin but also flavorful meat. Stop the thinking before you go existential on it and start wondering why you are trying to roast it in the first place.

It doesn’t have to be intimidating. I have many prep steps listed here. You don’t have to do all of them. It may be overkill, but I like the result and I’m not sure how much of which result is attributed to each step, so I don’t want to take any away. If this list seems overwhelming, skip to the part where you put your chicken in the oven, it will turn out right, I promise.

Because there are several steps in here, this is company chicken. I don’t always pull out all these stops for a weekday meal with my family—mostly because my kids wouldn’t appreciate all the hard work. They are just as happy with a store bought rotisserie chicken. When I make this, the work is for the adults who will notice the difference.

I start the night before. To get the skin nice and crispy, I take the chicken out of packaging (remove the neck and other goodies stuffed inside and do as you please with them), salt and pepper it on all sides, and leave it in the fridge, uncovered, overnight. The salt draws out the moisture which leaves the skin crispy and the open air of the fridge helps to dry the skin out too. A dry skin is a crispy skin.

30 minutes before I cook the next day, I lay the chicken out on the counter to bring it to room temperature. When the meat changes temperature from extreme to extreme too quickly, it can cause the fibers to tighten up, leaving you with tough meat. While it’s sitting, I heat the oven up to 450 degrees.

Now we choose the flavor profile. I always choose garlic, lemon, and whatever herbs I like at the moment. Today I chose Rosemary, Parsley, Oregano, and Basil. I used finely chopped fresh herbs, but dried herbs will also work just fine. Once chopped up, mix them together with the minced garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, and butter. Use a fork to smash the butter and then work everything in as much as you can. Not all of the juice will incorporate, and that’s ok. After you mix it, sit it to the side.

The problem with the breast meat is that it doesn’t have enough fat in it to keep it juicy. To fix this, we will add fat. No fat will soak into the meat like the animal’s own fat will. Time to do some redistributing. There just happens to be some extra fat inside the skin by the opening. Cut it off and save it for the next step.

Now you are going to separate the skin from the meat. Be careful, you don’t want to rip the skin. You need to use a little force though. There is a membrane connecting the skin and meat, so you’re going to slowly slide your fingers under the skin as far as you can from each side, and make a little tunnel. There is a membrane in the center between the breasts, that one isn’t going to move, so don’t try to break that one. Just do a tunnel on each side.

Now lay your trimmed fat flat on top of each breast. If you only got one piece of fat, just halve whatever you got and put half on each side. Once you get that into place, put half of your butter/herb mixture under the skin on each side laying flat like you did the fat. Once you’re done with all the filling and disturbing of the skin, flatten it out to make it look pretty again–this is for company after all. Final seasoning step is to sprinkle smoked paprika all over the chicken. If you don’t like the smoked flavor, use regular. The paprika gives it an appetizing color, so this is an important step.

Heat up a little oil in your cast iron skillet. When it’s good and hot, put the chicken in top side down first. Let it brown. You want a good crust on it.

Roasting a whole chicken can be time consuming. The one thing that can save you some time is that it can be like a one skillet supper. You are going to roast it and that means you can roast a vegetable alongside it. When choosing a vegetable, you can use anything that’s sturdy enough to withstand an hour in a hot oven. I used carrots alone this time and tossed them with some dried marjoram. Other good options are small potatoes, sweet potatoes, fennel, or brussel sprouts. You can even do a few of these at a time. When the first side of the chicken is browned, flip it over, add in your chosen vegetable companion, and put it in the oven. Bake it for 35 minutes (if it’s more than 4.5 pounds, you may want to bump it to 40 minutes), then at the 35 minute mark turn the oven off but leave the door closed with the chicken inside for another 30 minutes. If you have people in your house who get curious when they start smelling dinner, you may want to keep an eye on the oven to make sure they don’t try to crack the door and sneak a peak. It’s important that you keep all that heat in the oven to let it continue cooking.

Once the time has passed, let the chicken rest for another 20 minutes. You can finish preparing your other sides during this time.

And finally, cut it up, pat yourself on the back, bask in the applause (even if it’s just in your head), and take all the credit for preparing the best chicken you’ve ever put in your mouth.

Lemon Garlic and Herb Whole Roasted Chicken

Ingredients

1 whole chicken (ideally 4 – 4.5 lbs, but take what you can get)

1 lemon, zested and juiced

2-3 cloves garlic

2 Tbsp butter

smoked paprika, sprinkled

A handful of fresh herbs, chopped finely

– or –

1 tsp dried rosemary

1 tsp dried parsley

½ tsp dried oregano

½ tsp dried basil

Directions

The night before place chicken in a dish or on a plate and salt and pepper the skin. Leave the chicken in the refrigerator uncovered overnight. Preheat oven to 450. Remove extra fat from back opening. Separate the skin from the meat without breaking the skin. Place the trimmed fat under the skin on top of each breast. Mix together all ingredients except the chicken and paprika and place the mixture under the skin also. Sprinkle the entire chicken with paprika. Heat a cast iron skillet with a little oil. Sear the chicken on the top side first. When brown, flip the chicken over. Add any vegetables you want. Put skillet into oven and bake for 35 minutes (more if your chicken is bigger). After 35 minutes, turn oven off, leaving chicken in the oven and leaving the door closed for another 30 minutes. Let the chicken rest for an additional 20 minutes. Then cut it up and serve.