Roasted Apple Chicken

1 whole chicken (5 to 7 pounds), cleaned inside and out, patted dry inside and out
6 stalks of celery, cleaned and trimmed
1 sweet apple, sliced
1 semi sweet apple, quartered
1/2 an onion, cut into chunks
4 - 5 garlic cloves, skins on
1 - 2 tsp freshly ground salt
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp ground pepper

Combine salt, thyme and pepper.  Rub the inside cavity of chicken with this mixture.  Loosen the skin from the breast of the chicken, lay the sliced apple between the skin and the breast meat.  Fasten the skin to the breast of the chicken with toothpicks so that the skin does not recede back during the breast meat as this will dry the chicken out during the roasting process. Stuff the cavity with the remaining ingredients:  celery, quartered apple, chunked onions, garlic cloves.

Roast at 425 for approximately 90 minutes.  An instant read thermometer should read 170 when checking the thigh.  Juices should run clear.

Remove from oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes before carving.