Perfectly Delicious Roasted Chicken
Hey, I’m Amanda and today on MyRecipeFood we’re making a perfectly delicious roasted chicken, so let’s get started.
Preparation Roasted Chicken recipe
First off, preheat your oven to 450°F. Grab a big roasting dish and we’re going to prep our chicken. You should have a 3 to 4 lb roasting chicken, and it shouldn’t be ice cold. If it is, it’s going to really have a difficult time baking properly, so just let it warm up a bit. Also drain any juices that are left inside.
You want to pat your chicken dry with paper towels. It shouldn’t be wet because we’re going to be covering this in delicious things including butter, and I need that to stick. This chicken had its giblets removed. I actually saved the livers because roasted chicken liver is one of my secret favorite things that you know about now.
Roasted chicken is delicious, and I love the crispy, nicely seasoned skin, but you want the meat to be flavorful too. You can’t just put flavors on the outside of your chicken; you have to put it under the skin as well.
Preparing the Chicken
With your clean hands, you’re going to carefully separate the skin from the meat. You want to lift the skin away from the meat without tearing the skin. It’s great to keep it intact because it’s going to keep all those flavors in there. So many delicious things will be placed inside of here. If you tear your skin, that’s okay it happens. Don’t worry about it; it’ll still be delicious, just a little tear.
You also want to lift the skin away from the thighs as well because it’s going to be flavored all over. We’re going to set our chicken aside, wash your hands very well, and on to the next step. Running water is an important element since it acts to flush foreign material off the hand.
Flavor Components
In a smallish bowl, I’m combining about 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Going to melt this in the microwave over 50% power.
And while it melts, I’m heading out to the garden to grab some fresh herbs and a few onions. We planted a lot of things in the garden this year, among them onions. So I’m using some fresh onions, fresh tarragon amazing. So is rosemary. You could use any of your favorite herbs in this chicken.
For this recipe, you want at least one medium onion, but I love onions with roasted chicken, so I’m going to add one medium and two small. Just giving these a nice slice—it’s about half an inch thick. They’ll roast up and they won’t dissolve away, but they will cook through and caramelize in all those amazing rendered juices.
You know what the best part about onions fresh from your garden? No tears. Oh my gosh, look, it’s like nothing—there are no tears at all. It’s only the onions that have been in cold storage forever; they’re really aged and they’re just so potent. This—look, nothing, nothing! It’s amazing, sorry.
Grab a head of garlic. We’re going to cut it in half crossways. Be careful, careful! This isn’t garden fresh, so it has all the papery skin. Okay, perfect. Slice a lemon in half.
If you’re adding any herbs to your butter like I am, make sure you separate the stems from the leaves. This will go under the skin too, and no one wants to chomp into like a woody stem, so all the soft parts please. Oh my gosh, this tarragon smells so good—highly recommend with chicken. I’m going to give this a nice fine chop.
Every Sunday my family gathered for a big dinner with our grandparents, and we would have all sorts of dishes. We’d often have this dish, and making it just reminds me of my family. It’s like a warm memory to go with a warm delicious meal.
I’m adding about a tablespoon or so of my chopped tarragon right into my melted butter. I’m also adding in 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of salt and about half a teaspoon of cracked black pepper. All right, stir that together so it’s nice and mixed up.
Flavoring and Assembling Roasted Chicken
Now for the fun part: we get to rub this all over our chicken, under the skin and over too. I was thinking like, hmm, should I stitch this skin back together? But it was going to give some major Nightmare Before Christmas vibes, and I didn’t want to do that to you. So get that all in the cavities, surrounding the breast, surrounding the thighs. It’s actually really easy and painless if you just use a spoon to add this in here. I’m also going to spoon this butter mixture all over the skin over, under, in, and out.
And now it’s time to get our chicken together. Grab your onion. I’m going to just have a little bed of sliced onion all around it. My garlic goes into the chicken cavity along with about three sprigs of thyme—this will give it a nice aromatic hit. I’m also squeezing one lemon all over the chicken. A lot of it’s going to like just roll off, but it’s going to be in the pan as well, and the onion will cook that, and it’s going to be really nice.
I love making roast chicken because the chicken’s cooking in the skin in the fat, and it’s really going to be so moist and tender. And once you just prep it, it’s in the oven. You don’t have to worry about it until it’s done, and it smells amazing.
Pop the lemon halves right into the chicken as well. You want to fold the wings under the body so they don’t burn. Now I’m going to grab some kitchen twine and tie the legs together. This will help everything cook nice and evenly. If those wings or the legs were sticking out, they would really burn while the rest of your chicken was trying to cook through.
All right, I have a little bit more thyme, about three sprigs. I’m going to lay that around with the onions as well. Time to wash those hands one more time. The water temperature should be that which is comfortable to the skin.
Optional Additions
If you want to make a whole meal out of this, have added you can add little baby potatoes here. You could add like fuyu persimmons if it’s in the fall. So many amazing things can get roasted here—sliced carrots, everything.
If you are adding something like baby potatoes or whatever else in here, I will say you should season them and add some olive oil. So a little drizzle of oil all over those veggies, a sprinkle of salt and pepper.
I also popped the chicken liver into here as well. It’s one of my favorite things to eat. If that’s weird, you can let me know in the comments. I think it’s delicious, but some people are aghast.
Cooking Instructions for roasted chicken
This is ready to go into the oven, which is at 450°F, but as soon as you close that door, reduce to 425°F. It bakes for about an hour and 15 to an hour and 30 minutes, or until it’s golden brown and a thermometer inserted into the thickest part reads 165°F. But don’t cut it open yet! We’ll talk about that when it comes out.
We’re going to baste this chicken every 30 minutes in its own juices. We want to keep it nice and moist and not dried out.
Out of the oven and it temped perfectly! My chicken’s done cooking, but it’s not ready to touch. It needs time to rest, so let it sit for about 20 minutes. All those juices are going to be reabsorbed, and your chicken’s going to be perfect. If you cut it right now, you’ll lose all the juices, and your chicken, which is perfect, will actually be dry. So give it the time it needs to rest.
In the meantime, you could make a salad, set the table, or kick your heels up and relax.
Roasted Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken (3-4 pounds)
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for vegetables if adding
- 1 tablespoon fresh tarragon, finely chopped
- 3-6 sprigs fresh thyme
- ½ teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
- 1 medium onion plus 2 small onions, sliced 1/2 inch thick
- 1 head of garlic, cut in half crossways
- 1 lemon, halved
- Kitchen twine
- Optional: baby potatoes, carrots, or other vegetables
- Optional: chicken liver (if included with chicken)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 450°F.
- Ensure your chicken is not ice cold. Drain any excess juices and pat the chicken completely dry with paper towels.
- With clean hands, carefully separate the skin from the breast meat and thighs without tearing the skin.
- In a small bowl, combine the butter and olive oil. Microwave at 50% power until melted.
- Add the chopped tarragon, salt, and pepper to the melted butter mixture and stir to combine.
- Using a spoon, carefully distribute the butter mixture under the skin of the chicken, covering the breast meat and thighs. Also rub some of the mixture over the outside of the chicken.
- Create a bed of sliced onions in a roasting dish.
- Place the garlic halves and about 3 sprigs of thyme inside the chicken cavity.
- Squeeze the lemon halves over the chicken, then place the squeezed lemon halves inside the cavity.
- Fold the wings under the body of the chicken and tie the legs together with kitchen twine.
- Place additional thyme sprigs around the chicken.
- If adding vegetables, toss them with a drizzle of olive oil, salt, and pepper and arrange around the chicken.
- Place the chicken in the preheated oven and immediately reduce the temperature to 425°F.
- Bake for approximately 75-90 minutes, basting every 30 minutes with the pan juices.
- The chicken is done when it's golden brown and a thermometer inserted into the thickest part reads 165°F.
- Once cooked, allow the chicken to rest for 20 minutes before carving to ensure the juices are reabsorbed.
Notes
Personal Notes
I’m serving this chicken up for dinner. I’ve been sneaking bites left and right, and I’ve almost finished all the caramelized onions, and the liver—gone too. That chicken is melt-in-your-mouth tender, packed with flavor, and the potatoes and the onions are caramelized to perfection. Even the lemon comes through throughout.
I hope you get a chance to make this recipe, and if you like this Article, check out my dinner category.
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