Herb Roasted Chicken

Posted by in All Recipes, Poultry | 4 comments


This is one amazing, fragrant, moist, delicious chicken! I have an herb garden & take full advantage of it whenever possible. In fact, my Rosemary bush is almost as big as my car! So naturally I have an abundance of this herb & you’ll see it featured in a lot of my recipes.

The smell that this chicken will send through your house is intoxicating. You’ll be ready to eat before it’s ready for you to eat. My trick to making this chicken so moist, juicy & tender is my herb butter. Inserting the herb butter is a little tricky the first time you do it, but trust me it’s worth it. Make sure when making your herb butter that:
  1. your butter is at room temperature,
  2. that you chop your herbs finely {you don’t want any huge chunks getting caught in your teeth do you ; )}
  3. that you get the butter down as far underneath the skin as you can (a long tea spoon works well for me along with massaging it as well). When separating the skin tissue from the breast with your paring knife, be slow & steady. You DON’T want to rip the skin.
You can use whatever herb combination that you like. Mine will depend on what I have on hand in my garden but this is a great go to combination. As tempting as it will be to dive right in, WAIT for the chicken to rest before you carve it! To make a complete meal add carrots & potatoes to the roasting pan while baking & you’re done (1 pot, now that’s fabulous)!
Baci!

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Herb Roasted Chicken

 
What you’ll need:
1 Whole Chicken
1 stick of butter – softened
1 bunch of fresh herbs – normallyI use a combination of: rosemary, basil, thyme
2 cloves of garlic – minced
1 lemon – zest the lemon & reserve 1/2 of lemon
1/2 onion
salt/pepper

What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 425. Take the chicken, wash out the cavity and pat dry. Season the cavity with salt and pepper. Insert 1/2 onion, 1/2 lemon and rosemary sprigs inside the cavity. Tie legs together with kitchen string (or silicone bands).

2. Make your herb butter: Chop your fresh herbs finely. This usually ends up being around 2 heaping tablespoons give or take. Into a small bowl add herbs, butter, lemon zest, garlic and season with salt and pepper. Mix together. Set aside.

3. Take a paring knife & cut the skin away from the breast BE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO TEAR IT. Using a long tea spoon insert the butter in between the skin & breast. Pushing the butter down as far as it will go & continue until it is full of  herb butter.

4. Place chicken into roasting pan, if u have any herb butter left over spread it on top of chicken, then season skin with cracked pepper and salt.Cook for 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes. Let chicken rest prior to carving it.

Buon Appetito!

4 Comments

  1. 1
    bergamot / 04/07/2009

    This looks really tempting. Will try this some time soon.

    Reply
  2. 2
    Rollie / 01/04/2010

    You forgot to tell the amounts of rosemary,basil,thyme,lemon. Sounds great,but only half the recipe.thanks Rollie

    Reply
    • 2.1
      Paula / 01/05/2010

      Hi Rollie! I usually put 3-4 good size sprigs of each herb. You can put as much or as little as you prefer. Just make sure they’re equal amounts ; )

      Reply
  3. 3
    Melissa / 03/27/2010

    I am part of a meal exchange group where we make meals that are freezer ready for 6 families and swap out dishes one time each month. I wonder if I used fresh chickens if these could be freezer wrapped and bagged before cooking and how that might affect the cooking/flavor? Either way this recipe looks completely delicious and I plan on trying it for my family soon.

    Reply

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