Crispy Roast Chicken

This recipe isn't hard, but it looks very impressive. Tasty and low-cal too. And I like having roast chicken for leftover sandwiches and other recipes. It's in honor of Penny Pressed. Read her blog on chicken today and you'll see why!

*Bonus Points: Cut two heads of garlic in half, drizzle with one tablespoon of olive oil. Put the heads next to the chicken while it's roasting. Spread the soft roasted garlic onto crusty french bread as a side with this dish. Mm Mm good. If you like garlic, that is.

Ingredients

1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup scraped diced carrot
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh (or 1/2 Tablespoon dried) parsley
3 Tablespoons dry white wine (I just use the cheap supermarket cooking white wine)
1 (3-3 1/2 lb) broiler-fryer
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 teaspoons chopped fresh (or 1 teaspoon dried) basil
2 teaspoons chopped fresh (or 1 teaspoon dried) oregano
2 teaspoons chopped fresh (or 1 teaspoon dried) thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions

Combine first five ingredients, gently toss. Set aside. Remove giblets and neck from chicken, reserve to send COD to Penny Pressed. Rinse chicken, pat dry with paper towels. Lightly stuff body cavity with reserved vegetable mixture. If you want tie ends of legs together with heavy string. Lift wingtips up and over back of chicken, tucking wingtips under chicken.
Place chicken, breast side up, on a rack in a shallow roasting pan. Combine butter and next five ingredients. Brush chicken with butter mixture. Roast at 375 degrees one hour or until a meat thermometer inserted in thigh is at 180 degrees. Serve on a platter.

Prep time: 25 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour
Serves: 4