I like to put butter underneath the skin. One time I also basted the skin beforehand with a mixture of honey and oil. It turned out quite well.

My roast chicken is Chinese style:
-rub with cooking wine
-rub with dark soy
-spice rub: ginger powder, fine ginger powder (aka "sand ginger"), garlic powder, salt and a little sugar

Best when it marinates overnight before roasting.

I put Herbes de Provence and Garlic under the skin and roast it upright--the skin gets crisp, the meat stays moist, and there's almost no mess, provided that you put a roasting pan under the doohicky that keeps the bird upright.

Hammersley's Walk Away Roast chicken is lovely, though I've adjusted the recipe a little. SO easy!
Recipe is here on the new Pithy and Cleaver:
http://www.pithyandcleaver.com/?p=135

Exactly like bebklyn.

Usually I empty the chicken of gibblets, wash it and pat it dry, then salt it, pepper it, add basil, thyme and oregano and maybe a little red pepper flake. Toss it in the oven for an hour at 350-375. When it comes down, I take a stick of butter and rub it all over the skin (the whole stick doesn't get used...it just makes a good handle). Comes out perfect everytime!

Sometimes I stuff with lemons, sometimes I rub with Penzey's Northwoods Fire Seasoning (generally don't bother with blends, but that one I love), but if I want a plain chicken, I use a trick I found in an old cookbook. I blend butter with equal parts dry mustard, ground ginger and salt, and rub that under the skin. That blend of flavors does something lovely to the chicken - it tastes more "chickeny," without actually tasting like any particular spice. Very useful if you want a basic roast chicken for use in another recipe (like a chicken salad), or if your side dishes have a lot of pizazz and you want to keep the chicken on the quiet side. (If I have the chicken the night before, I rub the salt into the skin and let it sit, then I skip the salt in the butter mix).

Huh. I don't find it that difficult. :)

I always brine my birds first, then stuff the body cavity with whatever I have available (ranges from herbs from my garden, to garlic, to lemons, to apples ... or any combination of the above), then rub the skin with olive oil and salt.

That's pretty much it. Easy and fast.

(ps - Any time I try to post a comment from any browser other than IE, I get a "500 Internal Server Error" message.)

I roast (usually) chicken legs, but I've tried this method with whole chickens and works just as nicely.

1. Place chicken on an oven dish/tray/wherever.
2. Crumble a bouillon cube (chicken) over it.
3. Juice a lemon (bottled lemon juice doesn't really work well) over it.
4. Ready to roast.

It's so easy, you don't add any fat and the results... just try it before judging.

what timing, I just roasted a chicken last night. Outside: lemon juice, olive oil, s&p. inside: the remaining lemons, fistfuls of thyme, rosemary, and garlic, and I'll also stuff some of this under the skin. I roast on top of some veggies, whatever I have around that day, and have always deliciously browned skin with very tender meat.

Funny you should ask! I actually put my method down as a step-by-step process in case anyone needs that much guidance:

http://danamccauley.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/how-to-roast-a-chicken/

in a nutshell: I'm an oil and seasonings on the outside and aromatics on the inside kinda girl.

@KaraSP -- I was doing a little work on the comment server this morning. It's been a bit overloaded lately, so I had to rework some of the internals. If you're still having trouble, try visiting the logout link:

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/superlogout

... and then try to login again. If that doesn't work, you can email me at scott@apartmenttherapy.com

Mmm, this is making me crave a roast chicken RIGHT NOW...

I usually rub a paste of garlic, salt, olive oil, pepper, rosemary, paprika, and lemon juice as far under the skin as possible, and put lemons and garlic in the cavity.

Balthazar style - herb butter under the skin, herbs & garlic inside. Sear the outside before roasting for a great burnished look and crispy skin.

Just roasted some legs and thighs a few nights ago. Cut potatoes, onions - toss them in olive oil, salt, pepper. Add chicken - toss in olive oil, salt, pepper, regular ol' italian seasoning mix, and then drizzle everything in balsamic vinegar and lemon. Slow roast for about an hour - fall off the bone goodness. And if you're going to reheat, do it in the oven, low and slow. sooo good.

Zuni style indeed. The key is high heat. Cooks fast, crispy skin, moist inside. I usually bake at anywhere from 475 up to nearly 500 degrees. 20 minutes breast up, 15 flipped over, and 15-20 up again.

I always, ALWAYS butterfly it ala Cooks Illustrated. Use a shears to snip the carcass down the center of the back and then open it up so it lays flatish on a sheet pan/rack or layer of veg.
Cooks in about 1/2 the time and much more evenly, plus you get 100% of the skin nice and crispy. Best method ever and almost impossible to screw up, regardless of the oven temp you use.
For seasonings, I'm partial to dry rosemary/herbs, garlic, salt, and pepper ground to a paste with a mortar and pestle plus enough olive oil to make it spreadable. Smear over the whole carcass, inside and out.

I learned from my father and his father. You take your chicken wash it then sprinkle the whole exterior with season salt (peprika, salt, garlic powder, chili powder), then some Mrs Dash type stuff on the inside. Tye the legs together and place it breast down, (so that the jucies flavor the white meat) straight onto your hot bbq over a nice bead of coals. No turning nessicary if you get the temp around 300/350 and let it cook till it falls apart. The skin is super crispy and the meat is juicy and smokey.

I usually do butter, mustard, garlic and tarragon or thyme under the skin, and onion with some type of citrus fruit in the cavity.

I cook mine just like splatgirl. I started spatchcocking (butterflying) the bird a year ago, and never looked back. It's the best! I also put lemon slices under the flat carcass - they caramelize and get sweet, and the juice is lovely squeezed over the crispy skin.

I do roast chicken one of two ways --

Either following Simon Hopkinson, with butter, lemon and herbs, usually a "wet roast" with white wine (I sit the chicken on very thick slices of onion -- something I picked up from Martha, which are delicious) --

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2008/01/sunday_supper_simon_hopkinsons_roast_chicken.html

Or, "Bud's Roast Chicken" from Norma Darden's book, Spoonbread and Strawberry Wine, with mustard, herbs, and lemon:

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/buds-sunday-roast-chicken?autonomy_kw=bud's%20roast%20chicken&rsc=header_2

PAPER BAGS!

My secret is roasting the chicken in a paper bag. Rub the outside of the bird with a little bit of crisco, rub the inside of the bag with crisco as well. Stuff whatever you want into the bird, season with any seasonings you choose, place in paper bag and staple shut.

Roast in oven at 350 for 12 minutes per pound or until internal temp reaches 165.

Golden brown, moist and juicy, LOVE IT.

Someone showed me this years ago and claimed it was a "heritage trailer trash recipe": Make a paste of olive oil and Lipton dried onion soup mix. Slather chicken and roast. It turns out surprisingly well.

I have been known to use: oil, soy sauce, herbs, garlic, salt, pepper, mecap sauce, onion, lemons...

doesn't really matter, but i wonder where my post went... it must have been up earlier, PrettyKitty referred to it.

just thought i'd point out there might be a glitch.

I rub it down in bacon fat! Yummmmm. then whatever herbs my kid comes back with from the garden. honestly, she can't tell the difference between oregano and thyme. geez.

i brine it for an hour in a sugar/salt water, butterfly the chicken, rub 1 tbl butter on it and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. before i started to butterfly it the thighs and drumsticks were always dry and tough. now everything is perfectly cooked! we make it once a week.
i cook it on a broiler pan. if we're feeling really naughty we fill the bottom of the pan with carrots and potatoes. they cook in the drippings and are amazing. greasy, but amazing.

http://threadtrace.wordpress.com

Mmmmmmmmm.....lots of garlic, kosher salt, and then whatever I'm in the mood for. Sometimes chili powder, sometimes rosemary, sometimes paprika...

Some of my favorite recipes lately are:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/03/braised-chicken/

http://www.kayotic.nl/blog/?p=2351

I'd use the elaborate basting/buttering/seasoning approaches if I were stuck cooking a chicken-in-a-bag that I had to *make* taste good an moist.

But then I tried a really good free-range bird, and now I only use Thomas Keller's simple recipe from Bouchon: pat that sucker as dry as you can, rain a good coating of kosher salt over it, and roast it in a hot oven (450) for about an hour. Eat it with unsalted butter and good dijon mustard.

Unbelievably tasty.