1 whole chicken
4 large carrots, halved
4 large onions, halved
4 large celery stalks
1-1/2 teaspoons black peppercorns
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
5 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven broiler and adjust oven rack so that the chicken will be about 8" from the broiler.
2. Butterfly the chicken by cutting through the back bone with kitchen shears.
3. Grind peppercorns in a mortar and pestle or food processor, then add the garlic, lemon, rosemary and parsley. Combine with enough olive oil to make a paste.
4. Gently pry the skin from the flesh of the chicken and work the paste under the skin of the chicken wherever possible.
5. Rub the chicken with remaining olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
6. Place carrots, onions and celery in the bottom of a roasting pan and put the chicken on top.
7. Put the chicken in the oven and roast under the broiler, turning every 15 minutes or so, until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reads 165 degrees.
8. Allow meat to rest before carving. Easily separates into quarters because the backbone is removed.

Makes 4 servings

I've been trying to cram in Good Eats episodes lately wherever I can. Every time I watch an episode of Alton Brown's show I always learn something, even if it's a tiny, mostly irrelevant fact. In this case it was another way of roasting a chicken. My typical method has been to throw the whole bird in a roaster and cook it until it is done. His method is to butterfly it (a skill I learned watching the show) and roasting it under the oven broiler. I roasted the chicken on top of vegetables before, but mostly because I don't have a roasting rack. Turns out that he's fond of that method because it adds flavor.

Aside from the method itself, I also learned that by keeping my oven door open enough to let out some of the hot air I can keep the broiler on indefinitely where previously it would always shut off on me. This will be especially useful when it comes to crisping cheese and so on in the future. To flavor his chicken he made a spice paste and applied it under the skin. This spice paste he said was technically a "gremolata". I modified it slightly to make Roasted Lemon Rosemary Chicken; something I'm not usually fond of.

The resulting chicken was far more tender and flavorful than any chicken I have previously made and divided easily into quarters for simple servings. It also took less time to cook and had delicious, crispy skin. I am completely sold on this method of roasting a chicken, except that it tends to be far more laborious (frequent turning, actual cutting involved etc.) than my previous method.

Alton lost me when he recommended that I use the leftover oil in the pan mixed with mustard and red wine vinegar to make vinaigrette for a simple green salad. To his defence he was using a much larger chicken and had a lot more oil leftover, but the majority of what I had was the cold, coagulating type of chicken fat that a good salad dressing would not make. Since this dressing was what I had hoped to use to make my side dish, I ended up eating the chicken by itself.