A simple roast chicken recipe, especially a herb roasted chicken, is all you need for a tasty Sunday supper or low carb meal prep for the week.
Course Dinner
Cuisine American
Keyword easy weeknight meal, rost chicken
Prep Time 15 minutesminutes
Cook Time 2 hourshours30 minutesminutes
Total Time 2 hourshours45 minutesminutes
Servings 6
Calories 409kcal
Ingredients
1wholechicken ***(mine was 8 pounds)
salt and pepper
1tablespoonneutral oil (I use avocado oil or a good olive oil)
Compound Butter
4tablespoonsalted butter, softened
2teaspoonfresh parsley, minced and squeezed dry
1teaspoongrated lemon zest
Ingredients for Chicken Cavity and Pan
1smallonion, quartered
1wholelemon (multiple use)
2largegarlic cloves, gently crushed
fresh parsley sprigs
½cupwater
Instructions
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and position rack to the middle of the oven.
Remove the giblets, neck, gizzards and any other goodies from the cavity of the chicken. Rinse under a slow stream of water (to minimize splashing) and dry the chicken well, inside and out, with paper towels.
Place the softened butter in a small bowl. Roll the lemon firmly on the counter and zest, adding the zest to the bowl with the butter. Finely mince the parsley, squeeze dry in a paper towel, and add it to the butter. Mix the lemon zest and parsley into the butter.
Cut the lemon in half horizontally, the onion into quarters, and peel and gently crush the garlic cloves (I use the flat of my knife).
Method:
Loosen the skin over the chicken breast and thighs by working your hand between the skin and the meat (at the cavity end). Apply the compound butter under the skin, covering the chicken breasts and thighs. It won't spread nicely because the chicken is cold and moist and the butter will want to clump. It's okay.
Rub the lemon halves all over the surface of the chicken, then cut them in half again, into quarters. Rub oil over all surfaces of the chicken. Season the chicken well, inside and out, with salt and pepper - protein loves salt. Any leftover compound butter can be added to the pan or roaster.
Place two lemon quarters, an onion quarter, a clove of garlic and several sprigs of parsley into the cavity of the chicken. Arrange the rest of the lemon, onion, garlic and several sprigs of parsley in the pan around the chicken.
Roast:
Follow the roasting times linked to in the article to determine the correct cooking time for your bird. (My 8 pound chicken roasted for almost 2 hours. It was done when the legs wiggled easily, the thigh juices ran clear when pricked with a fork and the internal temperature was 165 degrees F.)
Check the pan during roasting. If it becomes dry, add some water. This will help make a tasty natural juice to serve over the carved chicken. Place under the broiler if more browning is desired.
Tent the chicken loosely with a piece of foil and let rest for 30 minutes up to an hour. Remove the chicken from the pan and scrape up any browned bits into the accumulated pan juices. Sometimes heating the pan helps the process. Strain the juices, skim the fat, adjust seasoning, and serve with the chicken.
Serving size is approximately 6 ounces per person.
Notes
*** Size of chicken will determine the number of servings and cooking time! A 3.5 pound chicken is great for 2 people. See article for details. NUTRITION FACTS: I used the nutritional information for 6 ounces of Rotisserie chicken from Fatsecret.com plus the compound butter (divided 6 ways) to calculate the info per serving for this recipe.