Roast Chicken with Herbs

This recipe comes from a cook book I received as a wedding gift, many moons ago. It is published by Sunset, called Easy Basics for Good Cooking. I used to make the roast chicken as a meal for new mothers. I'll try it again and see if the reality of today matches my memory of it. My intention is to put the chicken on a rack in a roasting pan and fill the pan with vegetables for roasting. If you don't want to do that, then save the drippings and use them as a base for your roux for chicken pot pie.

1 frying chicken (3-4 lbs)
3 cloves garlic, halved
2 bay leaves
3 T butter, melted
1/4 t each salt and pepper
1/4 t each ground sage, dry basil, thyme, oregano, and marjoram leaves
2 bay leaves

Remove giblets, etc.

Rub skin of chicken with 1 clove garlic; then put all garlic and bay leaves into the body cavity. In a small bowl, stir together all other spices with the butter. Spoon 1 T of this mixture into the cavity. Truss now (if you want to.)

Brush skin generously with the rest of the butter mixture. Place chicken, breast side up, on a rack in a shallow roasting pan. Bake uncovered, in a 375 oven for 1 to 1/1/2 hours or deep thigh reaches 185.

Baste occasionally with any remaining butter mixture or pan drippings during last half-hour of roasting. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

 **Delicious and so easy! You can see I added potatoes, sweet potatoes, and carrots to the roasting pan  as well.