This recipe is from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, page 130.

It’s been a minute since I’ve made an Ina Garten recipe, hasn’t it?

In fact, I think this is the first recipe I made of hers in the month of February. Guess I won’t be matching or beating last month’s total of 8 recipes!

Anyway, I decided to make an Ina classic this time. In fact, I think many fans of her show would argue that this is one of her signature dishes. Roast Chicken!!

Yes, finally! I’ve made Ina’s Roast Chicken. I know what many of you are thinking….”What took so long?”

To be honest, I’m not sure. But now it’s done. Of course, Ina has a bunch of variations on her Roast Chicken recipe throughout her dozen cookbooks, but I wanted to start with the original: the Perfect Roast Chicken out of The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook.

This recipe was easy to make. In fact, the prep time was only around 10 minutes. Then the oven does the rest of the work for you. If you did what I did and add vegetables to the roasting pan, this also becomes an easy one-pot meal. A tasty meal with an easy workload from start to finish — what could be better than that?!

The key to this recipe is in the seasoning. Do not be afraid to use a lot of salt and pepper. Essentially, those are the only seasonings. Yes, thyme goes into the cavity along with a lemon, but the salt and pepper really make this dish pop! The melted butter really makes the skin nice and dark and crispy.

The vegetables I used in the bottom of the pan? A lot of orange — sweet potatoes and carrots. Why, you ask? It’s what we had on hand!