First things first — please don’t use expired chicken. You’re trying to make a delicious meal, not give everyone food poisoning. Now that we’ve stated the obvious, we can move on to discussing why using a fresh bird will impact the quality of your roast chicken. If you want the most flavorful finished product, you need to go beyond simply checking the expiration date of your chicken.

In a perfect world, your chicken would essentially go directly from farm to table. In reality, that’s rarely possible, but you can still take steps to set your roast chicken endeavor up for success. When you’re selecting a chicken at the grocery store, the color of the meat can tell you a lot about its freshness. Per Healthline, fresh chicken should be pale pink in color, and you should steer clear of any meat that looks gray, yellow, or green. You shouldn’t be able to detect any odor, and your chicken shouldn’t feel slimy or sticky.

Once you’ve brought your chicken home, cooking it the same day is ideal. If you can’t swing roasting your chicken that night, don’t wait more than two days to start the roasting process. Once you roast your chicken, you won’t be in as much of a race against the clock, which means you’ll have time to enjoy the leftovers (if there are any).