This is from the recipe collection of Jim Brown (former beloved Il Cenacolo Member who recently passed away). This recipe was used in his La Lanterna restaurant.
There are as many ideas about how to best roast a chicken as there are cooks. Jim wasn’t very dogmatic about it. Many, the many Sunday Dinners he cooked for us started with two whole chickens, seasoned in various ways – at a minimum, rubbed with olive oil, salt and pepper. Then he put them side-by-side in a large Pyrex baking dish, facing in opposite directions, and baked them at 400F for an hour or so. The chickens are done when a leg will jiggle easily and the meat and skin start to pull away from the drumstick.
An alternative is Spatchcocked grilled chicken. To spatchcock a chicken, cut the raw chicken right along the backbone – or cut along both sides to take out the backbone entirely – and spread it out so that the inside cavity of the chicken is flat against the cutting board. Season it and either roast it or grill it. If you are short on time, this is a good option.