This is a simple, very good recipe.

Preheat oven to 400ºf;

Rinse and pat-dry a whole chicken. Loosen the skin over the breasts, starting from the open cavity end of the bird. Don’t be afraid to push your hand well under the skin; even loosen the skin down to (and including) the thighs.

Salt and pepper the bird generously, under the skin and outside the skin. Tuck generous amounts of rosemary and minced garlic under the skin.  Rub olive oil and butter all over the bird. In the cavity of the bird, place a lemon, quartered, and a few sprigs of rosemary. The bird is now ready for the oven.

You can put the bird onto a roasting pan (or a sheet, but try to get the bird up off the bottom of the sheet; if all else fails, a few chop sticks make a great rack), and straight into the oven; it will cook for just under an hour, until the breast is 165º.

We have a system that we love: we use a simple, foldable rack , placed on a rimmed baking sheet. We start with the chicken, breast-side up, and then rotate it every twenty minutes- three rotations making an hour; we then put the bird back to breast-up position, cover the breasts with foil, and cook for another ten minutes. The rotation spreads the natural juices throughout the bird- the result is a beautiful, brown-skinned, juicy chicken.

Let it sit for a while (at least 20 minutes) and carve however you like.