Roasted Chicken

Preheat the oven to 450°F.

Rinse the chicken, then dry it very well with paper towels, inside and out. The less it steams, the drier the heat, the better.

Now, salt the chicken — I like to rain the salt over the bird so that it has a nice uniform coating that will result in a crisp, salty, flavorful skin (about 1 tablespoon). When it's cooked, you should still be able to make out the salt baked onto the crisp skin. Season to taste with pepper.

Place the chicken in a sauté pan or roasting pan breast side up

When the oven is up to temperature, put the chicken in the oven. I leave it alone—I don't baste it, I don't add butter; you can if you wish, but I feel this creates steam, which I don't want.

Roast it until it's done, 50 to 60 minutes (4 lbs) to 70 minutes for (5 lbs).  Temp it, the deepest meat should be 160 degrees.

Let it rest for 15 minutes on a cutting board (it should come up 5-10 degrees).  If you are too impatient to let it rest, then cook it to 165 degrees before pulling it.