Roasting chicken

I've been a (fairly) competent homemaker for a whole lot of years. Almost 40, as a matter of fact. That's a lot of years of cooking and cleaning and laundry... yet there are some things that just don't seem to get better with practice.

Take 'roasting chicken' for example. I can't.

I usually cook chicken parts. They are smaller, cook faster, and you can make only as many as you need and buy only the ones you like. But lately 'parts' have been tasteless and I got tired of the disappointment. So I decided to try roasting a whole one. Surely it can't be THAT difficult.

I've tried this before. Over the 40 years I've been cooking, I'd guess I've tried this, on average, three times a decade. I never get it right. I always end up with raw meat. Since I am a stickler for having the whole meal get done - and served hot - at the same time, this is a disaster for me. And it is never a matter of 'just a few more minutes' but rather a matter of a couple more hours. How can this be? How can so many whole chickens simply refuse to cooperate? So I go for years just making chicken parts and then something triggers the thought that, surely, a roasted whole chicken would be good. And I get disappointed again.

But this time I thought I had it figured out. According to several magazines and The Barefoot Countessa (I always research things to the 'n'th degree) you are supposed to start cooking a whole chicken at a high oven temperature and then reduce the heat. You aren't supposed to stuff it. Or even cover it, particularly. And for good measure, I even left the legs 'untrussed' so they'd flap around in the heat on their own. And put celery and carrots and onions on the bottom of the pan for the chicken to rest on and be up off the bottom of the pan a little bit. For heat circulation. Or something. And after 30 minutes at 425 degrees and another 45 minutes at 350 I started cooking vegetables and got out my meat thermometer, fully expecting success as defined by 180 degrees in the thigh.

First problem: On a whole chicken - where is the thigh, exactly? I can see the leg but... Truthfully, I can barely distinguish the back from the breast when a chicken is raw.

Second problem: Only 140 degrees had been attained. Maybe I hadn't hit the thigh actually?

So it went back in the oven. I turned the oven up a few degrees. Every 20 minutes I tried again. 150. 155. 158. Good grief.

(I had even warned poor Mark that he better be home on time because I didn't want this to overcook! By the time we were finally able to eat it he'd been home and snacking for 2 hours!)

Finally it was done. I had already mashed potatoes. The vegetables were gray and mushy. I made the gravy while Mark carved.

Third problem: The gravy tasted like vegetables, not like chicken. Celery gravy just doesn't measure up. Very disappointing.

I can't roast chickens. Can anyone help?