This recipe is a foolproof way to get moist and perfect chicken using a few basic ingredients.
One of the most common problems with roasting a whole chicken, turkey or other poultry, is keeping the meat moist throughout. In fact, it's one of the most common questions found on cooking question and answer sites around the holidays, and especially Thanksgiving.
This recipe is written for chicken, but can easily be applied to any type of poultry, and can be used on pre-cut poultry with the skin intact, rather than an entire bird, as well.
Ingredients:
- 1 whole young chicken
- 3-4 pieces of bacon, depending on size of chicken
- 1 medium-sized yellow onion
- 4 large cloves of garlic
- 1 lemon
- 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
- 5 sprigs of fresh thyme
- 4 tbs of unsalted butter (softened)
- Salt and Pepper
- Kitchen twine
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
- Remove any gizzards from inside the cavity of the chicken, then rinse thoroughly and pat dry with a paper towel. Place the chicken in a roasting pan, breast-side up.
- Season the inside of the cavity of the chicken with salt and pepper.
- Cut the onion into quarters and place inside the cavity of the chicken.
- Lightly crush 3 of the garlic cloves and place inside the cavity of the chicken
- Place 2 of the rosemary sprigs and 3 of the thyme sprigs in the cavity of the chicken
- Cut the lemon in half and place in the cavity of the chicken. Note: If the chicken isn't big enough to fit all of these elements in the cavity, you can reduce the amount of onion or lemon, just be sure to have at least one piece of each element inside.
- Finely chop the remaining garlic, thyme and rosemary
- Mix the garlic and herb mixture into the softened butter and season with salt and pepper
- Gently lift the skin of the chicken over the breast and generously spread the herb butter directly on the meat
- Rub the herb butter over the outside of the entire chicken, reserving a little bit for basting during the cooking process
- Truss the chicken legs with kitchen twine to keep everything inside the cavity.
- Lay the bacon strips cross-wise over the breast section of the chicken.
- Bake the chicken at 375. After 45 minutes, remove the bacon and baste the entire chicken with the some of the remaining herb butter mixture. Continue cooking for an additional 15 to 30 minutes or until the temperature in the deepest part of the thigh reaches 175 degrees.
- Remove the chicken from the roasting pan.
- Prop a cutting board in the roasting pan, slightly at an angle and place the chicken on it breast side down, with legs at the highest angle. This will ensure that juice flow into the breast as the chicken rests, keeping the white meat nice and moist.
- Allow the chicken to rest 10 minutes.
- Carve and serve.
The copyright of the article Easy Butter-Herb Roasted Chicken in Dinner Recipes is owned by Nicole Tanner. Permission to republish Easy Butter-Herb Roasted Chicken in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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