Melissa Clark's Feta-Brined Roast Chicken

Discovered this a few years ago and it’s among my family’s favorites. I make a few modifications. First, I spatchcock the chicken. Second, I roast it over some root veggies: Yukon gold potatoes, carrots, parsnips, radishes, etc. The veggies get to cook in the chicken drippings and go well with the arugula and feta. Also, I buy a pack of feta packed in water and use that water in the brine. Finally, it’s so good one chicken isn’t enough so as we eat the first one and the veggies that roasted under it the second is in the oven ensuring yummy leftovers the next night. On a summer night it goes brilliantly with a watermelon, feta, and mint salad.

After perusing this recipe, my first thought was that this would benefit from the addition of garlic. I'm going to tinker with this a bit; will let you know how it turns out.

This is fabulous. I happened to have some feta brine, though not nearly enough, but had seen Melissa Clark’s comment that any brine would do. I knew I’d been saving that empty pickle jar of brine for some reason! I had a roasting chicken of nearly 6 lbs. so I managed to pull together about 4 1/2 cups of brine (including Kalamata olive). Also because the chicken was so big it split the ziplock bag. Late at night, I was about to use a 2-gallon ziplock which I was afraid would be too large but scanned my kitchen and spotted my 4-quart Dutch oven left out because I couldn’t fit it in the dishwasher and had left it for the next load. I had only used it for corn, so why not? 😉 The chicken fit perfectly snugly and was covered with the brine. I turned it over in the morning just to be sure. I had one oversight because I was busy making a side dish (try Melissa’s curried chickpeas with eggplant in “Dinner”) and neglected to add the olive oil to the pan before putting it in the oven. Discovered this about 15 minutes later and added the oil then. It didn’t seem to harm anything as the chicken came out perfectly cooked an hour later (despite the large size), was incredibly juicy and with crispy skin. Most roast chicken recipes promise crispy skin but rarely deliver. My husband, usually critical of roasted chicken recipes, raved over this. He thought the sauce should be bottled because it would make any chicken delicious, with or without crispy skin. I had a very nice feta from Vermont so it melted right into the drippings. The only slight complaint would be if you’re serving this to company the sauce kind of separates, possibly made worse by my addition of the chicken juices after carving. Overall for us, this may be the only roast chicken I ever make again!

Just made this and I'm very, very happy with this recipe! It is so simple to make- barely any active time spent preparing it, and the beautiful pop of acidity from the lemons and feta makes this a special roast chicken. I followed the recipe almost exactly as is, but used grapeseed oil instead of olive oil because I didn't trust olive oil at that high of a temp. Thank you for sharing!

This was a great recipe, although I need to tweak it a bit. First, 50 min @450 was too long for my bird, which was about 4 lbs or so. The white meat was a tad dry for my taste.

While the feta never completely dissolved in the drippings despite whisking for a while, I was fine with the lumpy texture. That said the amount of gravy produced was very minimal..,perhaps it was not a fatty chicken.,,plus I did not use an excessive amount of olive oil for fear of creating an oily mess in my oven. I added leftover stock to extend the gravy.

Finally, I used spinach as my greens but found they did not significantly wilt once the gravy was ladled onto the plate alongside the portion of chicken. Next time I might use arugula or blanch the spinach first,

The chicken skin was nice and crispy and the feta sauce and brine enhanced this chicken, elevating it beyond ordinary roast chicken.

On a final note, my fave roast chicken has always been Thomas Keller’s. His recipe is to roast at 450 until done. I recall some folks questioning the use of a Hugh temp for the entire roasting time.

Hands down the best roast chicken ever. However at the 450 temp my oven became a greasy mess. Can the chicken be covered or the temp lowered. Hate to clean the oven every time I make it

This brine was amazing! I just used 2 chicken breasts and marinated over night. Cooked it in the oven for an hour at 350 (with the brine) and then finished on the stove to boil it all into the chicken. Not too salty and delicious. Served it over a greek salad.

Am not a fan of roasting chickens at high temperatures. It never seems to turn out. I'd much rather do 350 for longer. My feta brine didn't do much, waste of good feta. The seasoning and lemon was ok. Probably won't make this again.

Delicious and juicy chicken! 50 minutes at 450 was perfect!!!

This was meat-falling-off-the-bone-melting-in-your-mouth delicious. This is now sharing place one of my roast chicken recipes with TasteFood's Roasted Butterflied Chicken with Cardamom and Yogurt. So thank you!

perfect.

I've made this twice now - once with a whole chicken and once with leg quarters. While the longer brining time is great it is still amazing with only 4-5 hours in the brine.

I just made this chicken. I'm having trouble getting the feta to blend into the sauce.
Any ideas.

This was incredibly good, the best roast chicken I've had. Everyone, even family members who weren't particularly fond of chicken, loved it. The drippings on the arugula were divine. Clean freak that I am, my only issue was that it made a huge mess in my oven. Still, it was worth the effort. Next time I will try roasting it in my Kamado Joe.

I've made this recipe several times, and it's hands down the best roast chicken I've ever had.

Wait - you don't reduce the temperature from 450? And cook the chicken for an hour?

Just use the brine that the feta comes in!