Garlic Herb Roast Chicken

I made my first roast chicken last night and it was AWESOME.   It was moist and flavorful; much better than store-bought rotisseries.  The best part was the mouth-watering aroma that filled my home while it was cooking.  The original recipe was from Ina Garten - Perfect Roast Chicken, but I added quite a few of my own adaptations.  So here's the EB version:

Ingredients

• 1 (5 to 6 pound) roasting chicken
• salt
• black pepper
• 1 large bunch fresh thyme
• 2-3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
• 1 lemon, quartered
• 1/2 orange, quartered (or smaller to fit it in)
• 1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise (no need to peel)
• 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted
• 4-5 Russet or Yukon Potatoes cut into large cubes
• 3 sweet potatoes cut into large cubes
• 4 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks
• 1 bulb of fennel, tops removed, and cut into wedges
• Olive oil
• garlic powder
• Johnny's seasoning salt

Directions

1) Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

2) Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pin feathers and pat the outside dry with paper towel.
3) Liberally salt and pepper (roughly 1.5 TBLSP of salt and 1-2 tsp pepper) the inside of the chicken. 4) Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, rosemary, lemon, orange, and all the garlic.
5) Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper.
6) Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken.
7) Place the rest of the ingredients in a roasting pan. Toss with 2 TBLSP olive oil, 1 tsp of garlic powder and 1 tsp Johnny's seasoning salt.
8) Spread around the bottom of the roasting pan and place the chicken on top. (make sure your roasting pan isn't too big or else some of the veggies might burn)
9) Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. 10) Remove the chicken and vegetables to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes. (this is essential to get the juices to go back into the chicken and make it moist!!) Slice the chicken onto a platter and serve it with the vegetables.

The veggies cooked in the chicken drippings were fantastic.  The drippings from the chicken would make an amazing gravy... but I'm not the gravy maker in the family so I just made a pouch gravy.  I ended up dipping my chicken in the juices and it was terrific.  Luke mentioned that rice on the side would complete the meal and I totally agree.  I was worried about roasting the chicken and veggies at 425 for 1.5 hours, but it really did come out perfect!