I prefer high heat roasting too, it's a lot juicier. 425 at least, usually 450-500 From the cooking forum Ann T You can trust this recipe! Preheat oven to 500°F TOTAL Roasting time 50 ~ 60 minutes Simplest Roast Chicken Serves 2 to 4 Here it is, the recipe that started the book. If there is no lemon, garlic, or butter on hand, roast the chicken without them. Or play. Use peeled shallots or a small onion, quartered. Add some leaves from the top of a bunch of celery, a couple of sage leaves, or a Bay leaf. Try a few juice orange or blood orange wedges. Vary the deglazing liquid to change the flavor of the gravy or to match what's in the bird. Basic Chicken Stock-or canned-is the starting point, but use part wine-whatever is left over, red or white-or a little vermouth. Make one third of the liquid orange juice if oranges are in the bird. This is not astrophysics. Have fun. Place rack on second level from bottom of oven. heat oven to 500°E Remove the fat from the tail and crop end of the chicken. Freeze the neck and giblets for Basic Chicken Stock. Reserve chicken livers for another use. Stuff the cavity of the chicken with the lemon, garlic, and butter. if using. Season the cavity and skin with salt and pepper. Place the chicken in a 12 x 8 x I 1/2-inch roasting pan breast side up. Put in the oven legs first and roast 50 to 60 minutes, or until the juices run clear. Alter the first 10 minutes, move the chicken with a wooden spatula to keep it from sticking. Remove the chicken to a platter by placing a large wooden spoon into the tail end and balancing the chicken with a kitchen spoon pressed against the crop end. As you lift the chicken, tilt it over the roasting pan so that all the juices run out and into the pan. Pour off or spoon out excess fat from the roasting pan and put the roasting pan on top of the stove. Add the stock or other liquid and bring the contents of the pan to a boil, while scraping the bottom vigorously with a wooden spoon. Let reduce by half. Serve the sauce over the chicken or, for crisp skin, in a sauce boat. Entered by ann_t

Check the Cooking forum. Those people are geniuses! Here is a link that might be useful: Cooking Forum

I don't care what Bon Appetit says. When I first got meat thermometers, I tried the suggested temperatures and was unhappy with the results. The chickens themselves might make a difference. I find the high 170's makes for more tender and pleasant chicken, still juicy and nicely hot, and when it's just barely cooked it's tough. I cook chickens to that temperature when they're going to be frozen and rewarmed.

Congratulations, nancyjane, now you've spoiled yourself and will have to continue roasting chickens! I raise my own chickens and process them for the freezer, so I always have a supply available. A couple of mine got a....little....um....big. Like 8 pounds worth of big, LOL. I brined one, stuffed it with fresh herbs from the garden and roasted it in an open pan at 450F. It took about an hour and a half and it turned out really well, one of the best I've made. I don't eat chicken skin, so crispy didn't matter to me, but everyone else loved it and were impressed with all the crunchy bits while the meat stayed moist. Obviously, I got more than one meal from that bird. We had the traditional roast chicken/mashed potatoes/green vegetable meal, then had chicken sandwiches. I made a batch of chicken enchiladas and still had enough chicken to make a batch of chicken and rice soup. The carcass became stock. That chicken definitely did not go to waste. I still have three whole chickens in the freezer, along with packages of "parts", so I see a roast chicken in my very near future, thanks to a reminder from nancyjane. Annie