Herb Roasted Chicken
January16
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. It’s a little tricky the first time you do it, but trust me it’s worth it. Make sure when making your herb butter that:
- your butter is at room temperature,
- that you chop your herbs finely, and
- 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.
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)!
Herb Roasted Chicken
1 Whole Chicken
1 stick of butter - softened
fresh herbs - normallyI use rosemary, basil, thyme
lemon - zest the lemon & keep zest reserved
onion - I like to use a red onion or vidalia
salt & pepper
Preaheat oven to 425. Take the chicken, wash out the cavity, pat dry & salt & pepper the cavity. Add 1/2 onion & 1/2 lemon & rosemary sprigs to the inside of the cavity. Tie legs together with kitchen string (or silicone bands) Make your herb butter: Chop your fresh herbs pretty finely & add to butter, add lemon zest & salt & pepper. Mix together. Take a paring knife & cut the skin away from the breast BE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO TEAR IT. Shove the butter down in between the skin & breast. I use a long tea spoon to do this. Pushing the butter down as far as it will go & continue until it is full of herb butter. Place chicken into roasting pan if u have any herb butter left over spread it on top of chicken & sprinkle cracked pepper.
Cook for 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes. Skin will turn golden brown & puff up and inside will be juicy & delish. Let chicken rest prior to carving it.
Buon Appetito!
This looks really tempting. Will try this some time soon.
[...] you like roasted chickens you might also check out my Herb Roasted Chicken, Lime Chicken, Orange [...]
You forgot to tell the amounts of rosemary,basil,thyme,lemon. Sounds great,but only half the recipe.thanks Rollie
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 ; )