Easy food: Roast chicken

I feed a family of four; three adults and an adolescent. We all have healthy appetites, so a chicken feeds us for one meal. I usually roast two chickens at once in my turkey roaster so I can have a day off from cooking.

Based on a recipe from Barbara Kafka's Roasting: A Simple Art.

Take two chickens of approximately equal size. Preheat oven to 500º. Yes, I do mean that high. Remove the innards of the chicken if the bird came with them; you can freeze them for later use, feed them to your pets, cook them for yourself if you like that sort of thing. Wash and shake dry. Face both chickens the same way. Put a flavoring agent (half a lemon, a handful of garlic cloves, a heaping soup spoon of lavender buds [my current favorite], a quarter of an onion) in the body cavity. Slide the roaster in the oven with the legs pointing towards the back of the oven. Set the timer for 10 minutes.

For an at-the-same-time side dish, cut wedges of potato to cover the surface of the roaster not covered by chicken. The potatoes will soak up the chicken fat and taste wonderful, but they certainly aren't "healthy." Just delicious.

After 10 minutes, shake or push the chickens so they don't stick to the roasting pan. Add the potatoes if desired. Set the timer for an hour. At that time, pierce the chicken to see if it is done; if the juices run clear the chicken is done; if pink, give the chicken some more roasting time. Once the chickens are done, remove it/them to serving platters, stir the potatoes to bring the browned parts facing up, and pop the potatoes back in while the chicken rests 10 - 15 minutes for maximum juicyness. Pull the potatoes out, turn off the oven, and carve the bird(s). Allow family to serve themselves from the roasting pan and the carved chicken.

Adding a salad to this would be somewhat healthier.