Author Notes
You don’t need me to tell you about the simple pleasures of roast chicken, or how economical it is to buy the whole chicken and cut up the parts yourself. But this recipe makes the best roast chicken of my roast chicken-making career, and I need to share. The secret is in the butter. Put strategically placed pats of butter under the skin, then rub the whole chicken in butter. Get some garlic and herbs in there too, and roast alongside potatoes for a one pan meal that takes about an hour to make (depending on the size of the bird and the idiosyncrasies of then oven).
The chicken comes out perfectly crisp on the outside and ridiculously juicy and flavorful throughout. And the best part was that even after we got more than our fill for dinner, this meal kept on giving (a la Merrill's 3 for 1 post this week). The remaining potatoes were reheated the next morning to accompany fried eggs for a brunch-worthy breakfast. And the leftover chicken meat and carcass were thrown into a pot and made into enough soup for two more meals. And there are countless other uses for leftover roast chicken (although making soup from scratch makes the most use of parts that would otherwise be discarded).
And, of course, a roast chicken is great for a picnic. It's excellent at room temp and can either be served whole and carved on the premises or broken up into pieces ahead of time. The vegetables make for an instant side. —kmartinelli
Ingredients
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1
whole chicken, 4 to 5 pounds
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5 tablespoons
butter, divided
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10
cloves garlic, smashed
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10
stalks rosemary
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Salt and pepper
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1 pound
potatoes, cut into pieces
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1
onion, chopped
Directions
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Preheat the oven to 425F. Remove and discard the bag with chicken parts from the cavity, if there is one (or save for soup if you wish). Put the chicken in a roasting pan.
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Cut little slits in the skin and put pats of butter and pieces of garlic under the skin throughout the chicken; put a few rosemary needles under the skin as well. Put a few cloves of garlic and a little butter in the cavity of the chicken, then stuff with rosemary. Rub the entire chicken in butter then generously season with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with butcher’s string and arrange the chicken so it is breast-side up.
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Sprinkle the potato and onion around the chicken; add carrots or any other root vegetable you like plus additional rosemary. Pour in just enough water that it comes up about 1-inch.
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Roast, undisturbed, for half an hour. Reduce the temperature to 375F and cook another 30 to 45 minutes until the inside of a leg can be cut open without pinkness or colored juice. Baste a few times as it cooks. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for a few minutes before carving.
A native New Yorker, I recently moved to Be'er Sheva, Israel with my husband while he completes medical school. I am a freelance food and travel writer and photographer who is always hungry and reads cookbooks in bed.
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