Before you are ready to roast your chicken there are two ways to infuse it with flavor and I like to do both so it is flavorful, tender and moist. The first thing you want to do is a salt brine.
Place your chicken in a large pot or bowl, cover with water and add ½ cup of kosher salt. Place in refrigerator and allow it to sit for 1 to 4 hours.
Remove chicken from salt water and rinse thoroughly, pat dry with a paper towel.
Now the next step for a perfect homemade roast chicken is to cover it in a homemade rub.
In a small bowl combine the ingredients and rub it allover the outside of your bird.
When placing in the roasting pan you can put your chicken breast up or down, I prefer down because it makes for a more tender and moist breast meat which is our favorite part.
Place chicken in roasting pan and place in oven preheated to 350°.
Roast for 20 minutes for each pound plus 15 extra minutes. For example mine was just shy of 4 lbs. So I left it in for 1 hour and 35 minutes.
To assure your chicken is done place a meat thermometer into inner thigh - poultry should be at 165° F when it is done. Try not to let it get over this because when you remove chicken form oven it will continue to cook a little, and you don't want it dried out.
Let your chicken rest for 10-15 minutes before carving.