Instructions: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a large skillet, melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium-low heat. Add apples, shallots, celery and thyme and saute for 7 or 8 minutes, or until browned (this will intensify the flavor; try not to mash apples). Transfer to a bowl and add bay leaf.

In a small bowl, cream 1/2 cup butter and cheese together. Loosen skin of chicken across breast, beginning at back of bird, by inserting a finger under the skin and running it back and forth, side to side, then forward. Make a small cut in the skin at end of each leg and run a finger around the meat. Take chunks of butter mixture and insert under skin. Knead mixture forward by rubbing skin until there is a layer of the mixture across breast and thigh meat (dont worry if its a bit lumpy - itll melt into the meat). Whisk olive oil with a little of remaining butter mixture and rub it into outside skin across the breast and top of thigh. Stuff bird with apple mixture and tie legs together with cotton twine.

Put chicken on its side on a rack in a baking dish. Roast, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Turn, baste and roast 20 minutes more. Turn chicken breast-side up, baste, and roast another 20 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 375 degrees, baste and roast about 15 minutes more, or until juices run clear when a thigh is pierced.

Turn oven off. Remove chicken from oven and place, breast-side down, on a platter. Cover loosely with aluminum foil and return to oven, leaving door partly open (to allow meat to rest and firm up, and juices to flow around it).

Let rest 15 minutes. Carve chicken and serve. Wine recommendation: chardonnay.

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