Roast chicken

I've become rather enamored of roasting chickens. It's so economical: the two of us reap at least three meals from one roasted chicken, and that doesn't even count the beautiful golden stock I make and freeze when all the meat's been devoured.
I've tried a few different recipes and a few different roasting vessles. I started with the real live Calphalon nonstick roasting pan with the professional-looking rack and ergonomical handles. It produced a beautiful bird. But our kitchen is very small, and that roasting pan is very big--too big, if we're being completely honest, for one 3- or 4-pound chicken (which, incidentally, can cost as little as $5. I know I should be getting my chicken from a farm but the reasons I don't are myriad and will have to be reserved for another time. For the moment, let's just say it's because I'm cheap.). And counter space is at a major premium in my kitchen, so the second time I roasted a chicken, I left the big beautiful roasting pan (which was a wedding gift, of course) in the basement and turned to the big (but slightly smaller than the roasting pan) beautiful enameled cast iron dutch oven which was also a wedding gift. I have two of them. Nah nah nah nah nah nah. I love them both. One is about 5 quarts and one is 8. The 8-quarter is oval and it almost fits over two burners on the stove. I used the big one for my second chicken and it turned out great. But it's also a little unwieldy and I was getting pretty cocky with the chicken roasting. So I turned to my big cast iron skillet--sans enamel. I believe I wrote a tipsy post about that experiment. It turned out great. The cast iron skillet is now my go-to roasting pan. It's a manageable size and cleanup is pretty easy as long as I have an abrasive scrubbing sponge on hand.
As far as recipes go: after trying a few different ones, including Julia Childs' master Frahnch recipe, I have to say the best one is Marcella Hazan's Roast Chicken with Lemons. It is ridiculously simple, and in comments sections on like every Roast Chicken discussion on the world wide web, you will find that someone has posted a rave review of this recipe. You poke about twenty holes in two lemons, with a fork or a toothpick. You stick said lemons up a raw, rinsed (do I need to say plucked?) chicken's butt. You rub the chicken's skin with salt and pepper. You place the chicken in a cast iron skillet (this is my variation, you understand). You roast it at like 350 or 400 degrees for about an hour. You turn it from its back to its front, and then vice versa, every 15 to 30 minutes. You do not baste it. When the juices run clear and the leg wiggles freely in its socket*, you remove the bird from the oven and let it rest for about 10 minutes. Then you carve it and serve it and it is delicious and juicy.That's the recipe. Marcella has you truss it and I ruined a perfectly good embroidery needle (because who has chicken-trussing needles lying around?) the first time I made this, trying to sew the chicken's butt closed. I have not since trussed a chicken.
I also made a variation of this recipe for quesadillas recently: I stuck two limes up the chicken's butt and used salt, pepper and cayenne to rub the chicken. It turned out great, too. The lemon doesn't really flavor the chicken too much, and neither did the lime. Marcella says this is a "self-basting" bird, and I suppose that's really the function of the citrus fruits--to baste more than to flavor.
*I am a tiny bit paranoid about my ability to determine the wiggling of a leg and the clarity of chicken juices. The breast should be at 160 or 170 degrees. The leg and thigh should be at 180 degrees. These are the FDA guidelines. Julia says that in France people like their chicken less well-done than we do in these United States. That makes me want to puke a little. The trouble is that a juicy chicken and an undercooked chicken are a little too similar. My chickens fluctuate a little as concerns their done-ness. I would say err on the side of dry, not because of salmonilla but more because, even though everyone thinks they want a juicy piece of chicken, it can be a little gross if the chicken's so juicy it's almost wet. But that's my personal taste, my personal advice. You really have to feel your way to being comfortable with chicken-roasting.
P.S. Sorry--the only photos I have are these, which I forgot to snap until the chicken had been carved a little bit.
P.P.S. The lemon chicken stuck once. I think it was in the enameled cast iron. There was no rhyme or reason. I scraped it off and flipped it and it still tasted great. I chalked it up to a fluke. That's what you should do, too. If you try this. If you read this, which you won't because...you know. I might be a tiny bit crazy.