Special Roasted Chicken

What makes this special? It uses quite a lot of ingredients. All the good stuff, basically. They make the chicken flavourful and moist. It’s really really good! This is an overused recipe in my book and the husband’s favorite (next to pizza and burger of course!)

Ingredients
Stuffing:
1 small yellow onion, chopped into 4 quarters
1 stalk celery, chopped into pieces
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons cold butter, cut into cubes
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary or 2 tablespoons dried rosemary
small bunch thyme (optional)
half lemon
salt and pepper

Chicken:
1 roasting chicken (3 to 4 pounds)
4 cloves garlic, pressed
4 small cubes of butter
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons chopped rosemary/dried rosemary

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 190c/374F for 20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix chopped onion, celery and garlic. Season with salt and pepper then add cubes of butter. Set aside.
3. Clean chicken by removing giblets, neck and trim off all visible fat. Season the chicken including the cavity with salt and pepper. I usually used about 1 tablespoon of each. Add more if preferred. 
4. Prepare roasting pan by lightly coating it with oil. Place the chicken in the pan with the legs pointing towards you, breast side up. Lift up the skin around the cavity and work your fingers under the skin over the breast and legs, easing it away from the meat. Push the garlic and butter cubes under the breast skin and legs, spreading it as evenly as possible. 
5. Stuff the chicken with lemon, prepared stuffing, rosemary and thyme (if using). 
6. Tuck wing tips under back of chicken; tie ends of drumsticks together with twine. Although on lazy days, I just make use of cocktail sticks to close the loose skin of the cavity. 
7. Season chicken with olive oil, chopped rosemary and additional salt and pepper. 
8. Roast chicken breast side up for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Use middle rack.
9. After 1 hour and 15 minutes, based chicken with pan juices. Increased oven temperature to 220C/392F fan on. Baked for another 15 to 20 minutes or until the chicken is golden and done!