I'm not a whole chicken person - I use Ina's recipe for chicken breasts and they are amazing. I've stopped buying the boneless/skinless breasts and figure I'll deal with the few extra calories that come from cooking "skin on". I'm surprised her baked whole chicken recipe would be anything but marvelous. Are you using the right size chicken - not one of those oven stuffer roasters or something?
(I think family recipes are almost always best - it's what we grew up with)