Roast chicken

We felt the need for comfort and there's nothing better on a wintery night than a nice roast chicken. So into a 400º oven went our big roasting pan, filled with 2 turnips in thickish slices, 4 onions ditto, 4 carrots ditto, 10 or so denuded cloves of garlic (half a head), sprinkled with kosher salt and thyme, on top of which went 1 nice chicken with some sprigs of rosemary under the breast skin. Roasted 45 minutes, then tossed in some parsnips, which cook much faster than the other vedge.
And now the secret (shhhh!) to a roast chicken with both legs and breasts done at the same time. At the 45 minute mark or so, when the temp is still c. 140º, cut the skin that hold the thighs to the body, and press down at the ball joint to splay the thighs. Let it cook the next 15 minutes or so, till the breast is about 160º. Let it rest out of the oven for 5-10 minutes, depending on how hungry you are. The thighs will be fully done too.

I've never seen this mentioned in any cookbook, but the reason the thighs never cook at the same time as the breast meat is because the heat can't get to them. I think only reason against doing this is esthetic prejudice: the chicken looks a bit immoral (gynecological perhaps to more delicate sensibilities), a "loose" bird. Hence the Victorian need to truss, to bind, to impose colonialist hegemony on the corporeal . . . help, I was briefly possessed by the spirit of Edward Saïd. Note, that even Julia Child eventually gave up on trussing the bird.
The result is a tasty bird, with a bunch of root vegetables that have auto-basted in the schmaltz. Deglaze with a tiny splash of white wine to get all the brown bits.
P.S. If you want to, you can stick a lemon up the chicken's butt.