This is an altered Tyler Florence recipe that is very easy and fantastic, but must be planned early in the day. I brine the chicken for a few hours in salt & water, along with spices and herbs. Tyler’s recipe doesn’t do the brine, but I find it makes the chicken much more flavorful. He also uses different herbs and other components. I have made both his version to the T (well, turkey bacon instead of regular) as well as mine, and was much more successful with mine, below.

Tyler Florence’s Ultimate Roast Chicken

Ingredients

• 1 5lb. whole chicken
• 1/2 c salt (try sea salt, it’s better for you)
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1 bunch green onions
• 1/2 c fresh basil leaves, chopped
• 1/2 c fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 5 pieces turkey bacon
• 1 onion, cut in quarters

Directions

1. First, rinse your chicken, remove the internals, and place chicken in a large container, pot, bowl, whatever. Add salt, garlic powder, half of the chopped basil, a few chopped green onions. Fill with water until chicken is completely submersed. Stir to dissolve the salt. Cover and refrigerate for 4 – 6 hours.
2. Remove chicken from brine and place into a roasting pan. Mix butter with remaining basil, half of the parsley, some finely chopped green onion (be sure to reserve about 5 inches of the green onion stalks for stuffing).
3. Pull up the skin of the chicken on the breasts and using a spoon (or your hands), slather the butter herb mixture underneath the skin. Cover the entire outside of the chicken with the rest of the butter mixture.
4. Place 2 of the onion quarters inside the chicken along with the remaining green onions stalks, the rest of the parsley and some basil leaves.
5. Peel apart the remaining onion quarters and place on top of the chicken. Cover the top of the chicken and onion with the bacon, overlapping slightly and running top to bottom and covering the chicken breasts entirely.
6. Bake at 325 F for about 1 hr 35 mins, then remove bacon and increase temperature to 425 for 15 minutes. This will brown the skin. You will also want to push the onion off the top or else it will burn. Once done, remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes before carving. Feed bacon to dogs.

For the gravy, take about 2 tbsp of pan drippings and put into a small saucepan over medium-low heat along with 2 tbsp of flour. Stir to remove any clumps, then add 1 cup of water while stirring. Let simmer for 5 minutes or until it thickens. Add salt & pepper to taste. With the step of brining, you shouldn’t need to add much salt in the gravy, if any.

Serve with mashed potatoes, I just use instant unless I’m feeling adventurous.