simple roasted chicken

i've been abnormally busy this week and haven't updated either blog because of it. i've been lucky enough to convince both my babies to nap at the same time, so instead of blogging in the last two days, i've napped when they have. not to mention the 12 hour day that matthew and i had in the city on wednesday. i think i'm still recovering from that. but here is my roasted chicken and it couldn't get any easier! i love doing this and i was inspired early this week because it was so crappy out i thought i should make chicken noodle soup - gotta make the bird first though!

• 1 frying chicken, i always keep it to five pounds or less because that's plenty for a big meal (for us) and lots of meat for the soup
• 2 tbsp of butter
• salt and pepper
• water for the roasting pan

slather the butter all over the bird (make sure all the innards are removed and legs tied together). sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. always keep water in the roasting pan. it will evaporate as it cooks, so be prepared to add more as you go. but don't keep too much water because when you need the juice to make gravy it will be too diluted. and i do bast it periodically.

i don't know what i did differently than the other twenty times i've done a bird, but this was the best tasting chicken mike and i have ever had.

and here's my secret - i don't know if it's much of a secret - but bake the bird at 425 for half an hour, then turn the oven down to 350 for the remainder, usually about 1 1/4 for a 5 lbs bird (so almost 2 hours in total oven time). internal tempurature should be 176 f. make sure you let the bird rest outside of the oven for at least 10 minutes before tearing into the sucker.